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REMINISCENCES 



OP 



CARBONDALE, DUNDAFF, 



AND 



PROVIDENCE 



I='O^^T^r -STE^^^S T^A. 



S T 



J R. 


BY 

DUKFEE 




^^' ' 


PHILADELPHIA: 


MILLER'S BIBLE 


PUBLISHING HOUSE, 



1875. 






•/V 



^ 'of 



INTRODUCTION. 



To write a letter on business, or to correspond 
with a friend, one knows full well in what lan- 
guage to couch his sentiments so as to meet the 
approval of those with whom he would communi- 
cate. But in making a hook for the public eye, 
when, perhaps, thousands of eyes will be peering 
over it, and many of them boiling over with criti- 
cism, one may well find himself at a loss in what 
measure to write ; whether to be sechite or gay, or 
to rightly estimate how many ounces of felicitious- 
ness to throw in. 

Nothino- was more remote from our desig-n when 
we commenced our letters to the Advance^ on the 
early history of Carbondale, than of getting up a 
book. Having for years past retired from the 
active business cares of life, we have found our 
monotony so much like the waiting at a railroad 
station for the train, that we have occasionally 
passed away our time by writing letters to the 
Advance; oftentimes feeling that the publishers, 
as well as the readers, endured rather than en- 
joyed them. As time passed on, and we becoming 
more used to corresponding, and receiving much 
encouragement (more than we expected, or felt 
was due us), emboldened us to continue, until for 
the past year or two we have grown into a regu- 
lar correspondent. In corresponding for a paper, 
one writes only for the time, '' that he who runs 



may read." People, however, pay for papers to 
get the news, and it is not right that they should 
be filled with matter that concerns no one. When 
a person gets up a book, he does so at his own 
risk, and the public can buy or reject it as they 
see fit. In the small work we here present, we 
have endeavored to state facts as we found them, 
though roughly hewn. We possess no polished 
word's or rounded sentences wherewith to clothe 
our thoughts. The sentiments, and the language 
which utters them are our own. We need not 
inform the reader that in our journey through 
life we have not been blessed with ease and afflu- 
ence, but have worked our way up its rugged 
steps, a stranger to education and its refinements. 
If our labor, which we here present to the public, 
proves of interest to them, we shall feel satisfied. 
Should our views differ in some respects, say these 
are his, but not ours. 

This history of Carbondale has been undertaken 
at the request of two prominent citizens, formerly 
of Carbondale, but now of Scranton. In complying 
with their request, we can only say, if the present 
generation does not now appreciate or feel an m- 
terest in these pages, perhaps when their author 
shall have gone to his long home, some abler 
hand may turn them and gather ideas of the past, 
as well as remembrances of those who have acted 
BO well their parts in the early struggles of the 

""^^^^^ '^'^' J. R. DUEFEE. 

November 1, 1874. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EARLY HISTORY OF CARBONDALE, 

Carbondale township was formed from 
Blakely and Greenfield, in 1831. C. E. Wil- 
bur, now a resident of Jefferson, and up- 
wards of ninety years old, was one of the first 
settlers of Carbondale, about the year 1800. 
He it was who first discovered coal near the 
Lackwanna, now in Third Ward of the city of 
Carbondale. 

In 1812, William Wurts, under the guidance 
of Mr. Wilbur, explored this region, and dis- 
covered coal at several places in the township. 
This induced him and his brother Morris to 
purchase property here, then owned by Lord 
John Russell, of England. His agent was J. 
E,. Priestly, of Northumberland, Pennsylvania. 
These enterprising men, in 1824, erected the 
first log house in Carbondale, for the accom- 
modation of themselves and laborers. Then 
there was no outlet or market for coal; and 
very little was accomplished in the coal busi- 



ness, until the organization of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company, and the comple- 
tion of the railroad to Carbondale in 1828. 

The township contains an area of twenty- 
three square miles. Its surface is rugged, 
though not sterile. Being underlaid with an- 
thracite coal, like other mining regions, agri- 
culture has not received much attention from 
its inhabitants. 

In the year 1840 there were 252 persons en- 
gaged in mining, and 32 in agriculture. Its 
population in 1840, including the city, was 
2,398. In 1850, without the city, it was 459. 
Carbondale city was incorporated by an act 
of Assembly in 1851. Prior to that time it 
was a borough, which in 1850 contained 4,945 
inhabitants. The first dwelling in the place 
was built by Morris Wurts, Esq., in 1824, 
and for some years was used as a boarding 
house, and called the " Log Tavern." In the 
year 1828 a Catholic Church was built ; also, a 
Union Church, occupied by Protestants, and a 

school house. 

With a few exceptions, the following named 
gentlemen are the only persons residing in Car- 
bondale who, located there prior to 1830: Dr. 
T. Sweet, D. W. Lathrope, John M. Poor, 
S. E. Eaynor, Samuel Mills, E. E. Marvin, 



Henry Johnson, Stephen E,odgers, and D. Yar- 
ringlon. 

Stewart Pierce, writing in 1860, says: 
" There is a court house and a jail here, and a 
Recorder's Court for the city, held four times a 
year, by the Hon. John Conyngham. The city 
contains 56 dealers in merchandise, 24 restau- 
rants, 5 hotels, 8 churches, 2 machine shops, 
and 3 foundries. There is only one brick build- 
ing in the city." 

He also writes : " Through the efforts of 
Morris and William Wurts, the enterprising 
projectors of the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
and Railroad Company, the work was com- 
menced in 1826, and completed in 1828; J. B. 
Jarvis acting as engineer. The canal is 108 
miles in length from tide water on the Hudson 
to Honesdale. It ascends to Honesdale, 980 
feet above tide, by means of 106 locks and 2 
guard locks. Its boats carry 125 tons, and draw 
6 1 feet of water. 

" The raih'oad originally connected the mines 
at Carbondale with the canal at Honesdale, 
having five inclined planes and stationary 
engines, overcoming an elevation of 850 feet, and 
costing, with the canal, $3,500. Within a few- 
years past the road has been continued to 
Archibald, and is now in process of extension 



8 

to the newly purchased coal lands of the com- 
pany, near Scranton and Providence. This was 
the first railroad in Luzerne county, and the 
second that was commenced in the United 
States. 

"The first locomotive was brought from 
England soon after the completion of the Del- 
aware and Hudson Canal, and placed on the 
road in 1828. It was conveyed through the 
canal, and when placed on the road, where its 
self-moving power — as it rapidly coursed along 
the iron rails — excited the unbounded aston- 
ishment of the natives. The bridges and trestle 
work of the road proving too frail for the great 
weight of the steam horse, it was abandoned, 
and for several years lay rusting by the road 
side — the boiler of which is now in a foundry 
in Carbondale." 

From the description given by Mr. Pierce, 
we learn that the wheels of this wonderful piece 
of mechanism were of wood, like ponderous 
cart wheels, with wooden fellows, and wrought 
iron tire and flange. It was also built with a 
walking beam, similar to a steamboat. 

We also append a scrap from an old paper. 

" The first locomotive that ran upon a rail- 
road on this continent was imported from 
England by the Delaware and Hudson Canal 



Company ; was ordered in England by Horatio 
Allen, assistant engineer; was shipped from 
Liverpool, April 8th, 1829, on board packet- 
ship John Jay; arrived in New York the 17th 
of May, 1829 ; was sent up the river to llound- 
out, and arrived there July 4th, 1829, from 
thence was transported by canal and arrived at 
Honesdale, July 23d, 1829, and on the 8th day 
of August, 1829, made the trial trip. This 
locomotive was built at Stourbridge England, 
was named the Stourbridge Lion, and the boiler 
is now in use at Carbondale." 



CHAPTEH IL 

CARBONDALE NAMED. 

We have been told by Stephen Rogers, Esq., 

one of the oldest citizens of your place, that the 

name of Carbondale was first announced when 

a wagon load of axes, picks, shovels, &c., came 

from Philadelphia, making their way through 

Canaan, then an unbroken wilderness, marked 

" Carbondale," and thus those silent messengers 

proclaimed along the way, that Pennsylvania 

was giving birth to another settlement. Little 

did the most sanguine think then of the impor- 

1* 



10 

tance that the little city in embryo would be- 
come in less than half a century, and although 
it cannot boast of being named after some illus- 
trious personage, it can boast of standing on its 
own merits. The name is much more appro- 
priate than to call that part of the city below 
the Highland Mill South Africa. While riding 
through that interesting portion of the city with 
our much esteemed friend, John Watt, Esq., 
whose head is a complete encyclopedia of 
knowledge, and whose index finger is ever 
ready to point out the most interesting places, 
we could but think while riding over those un- 
graded roads and unbridged water courses, of 
the lady who had just returned from a visit to 
the Yosemite Valley. She said that the scenery 
was gorgeous, but she didn't like the locomo- 
tion. " How is that ] " said her friend. " Why 
it was a la clothes pins.^' But that part of the 
city is young yet, as Father Dickson said of 
Colt's pistols — '' when they get age they will 
be good as any gun." 

When we first came to Carbondale, forty 
years ago this fall, there was only two streets, 
one running south to the White Bridge, the 
Carbondale «& Blakely Turnpike, and the Mil- 
ford & Owego Turnpike running east and west 
up as far as Church street, and thence north as 



11 

far as the Thomas Gillespie house, and then 
diagonally across the yard of Henry Jadwin, 
and back of the parsonage to the foot of the 
hill. Not a sidewalk was thought of for a num- 
ber of years. Were all the people that were 
there then and still live there, assembled now, 
they would make a very poor corporal's guard. 
We were much pleased on our arrival at 
Carbondale to know that ever since the spire of 
the Catholic Church had been put up, that not 
only the whole city, but all new comers had 
been looking up. We congratulate our Catholic 
friends on their success in building so noble an 
edifice, and it would seem that the materials of 
which it is built would almost defy the ravages 
of time, and would be as lastino: and unfading: 
as their principles. We were glad to see that 
the Public Square had been nicely cleared off, 
so that the people could drive across it with 
safety, and that the regular rates of toll were 
but one dollar for all kinds of carriages. But 
another inconvenience is that the citizens have 
no convenient place to dump their coal ashes, or 
empty their straw beds and other rubbish ; but 
probably by another year times will change, 
and the Public Square will be used by the 
quadrupeds as a place to hold high carnival by 
running their snout colters under the turf. 



12 

But perhaps some mischievous boy may serve 
them as one did the colored man's. He said, 
" It tooked a whole ebening to pick the shot out 
ob de pig, when de pig warnt doing nothing but 
root up de little grass in de street." We were 
also much pleased to see the greac improvements 
in the sidewalks. We well remember when 
the first one was laid, and how a countryman 
looked at it and said that soon he would have 
to polish his boots when he came to the city. 
The roadways are also much improved. Now a 
good marksman can drive from the depot in 
broad day light to the Watt House and not hit 
one stone in a hundred. 

It was pleasant indeed to revisit the city of 
Carbondale, and meet the many smiling faces 
with whom we had in former years travelled up 
the rugged paths of life's journey, also to see 
the vast improvements that have been made and 
are still being made. If our judgment is not at 
fault, there has been more houses built, not only 
in numbers, but more wealth in house3 the last 
six years, since we left there, than all that were 
there then. What the future will bring forth 
remains to be told. 



13 



CHAPTER III. 

CARBONDALE FORTY TEARS AGO. I ^^ ^ 

When we firs'c visited Carbondale, forty years 
ago, our greates-t curiosity was to see those 
coal mines of unt'>ild wealth. Making our way 
from the two hotels, where the Keystone now 
stands and the Mansion House on the opposite 
corner, down across the river to where the 
Episcopal Church now stands, and down to the 
" Dip," a little below the Gas Works, we found 
some half dozen persons in their mining clothes, 
and some mine cars with a mule attached. We 
told the men that we had come to see the 
mines and would like to go into them. They 
told us to get into the box and they would take 
us in. No sooner said than done, and away 
we were hurled into the darkness. What our 
feelings were can better be imagined than de- 
scribed. We had always read and been taught 
the story of the Evil One, how he had deceived 
poor Mrs. Adam in the garden so long a time 
ago, and had been going on progressing in 
wickedness and cunning ever since, and how 
did we know but that it was one of the schemes 
of the arch enemy of all goodness thus to de- 



14 

ceive and thus entrap us into those sulphurous 
regions ! 

** But clown tlirougli the regions of the night 
They took their way through forests void of light, 
To stand before the hiexorable king, 
And there before the trembling ghosts to cling." 

Arriving at the end of our journey, where 
were now and then the appearance of some 
ghost-like form, we could only think of the 
clergyman in the Lehigh Coal Fields, when he 
accidentally slipped down a mine shaft among 
a lot of miners. Both parties were tremendously 
frightened, but finally one of the miners ven- 
tured to approach him and thus addressed him: 
" Who and what are you 1 " " Well," said the 
clergyman, " when I was up in yonder world I 
was a preacher of righteousness, but now I'm 
here I'm anything you want I should be." 
Very soon a ghost-like form seemed to make his 
way towards us, and in a squeaking kind of voice 
seeming to come from near a pair of eyes and 
a row of ivory, said, '^Footing, sir; pay your 
footing." What's that '? " said I. " Quarter 
of a dollar, sir." Well, thought I, if a quarter 
of a dollar will puchase my immunity from 
such a place as this, it is a cheap purchase, and 
I was then allowed to cling to the rear end of 
a little car load of coal, until daylight satisfied 



15 

me that I was out of those unearthly realms, 
those sulphurous regions, which only seemed 
to be the abode of wealth and labor. 

On interviewing the embryonic city we found 
much to occupy our attention. There were 
two very respectable hotels in the upper part 
of the town, the Mansion House, kept by 
David Blanchard, son in-law of Salmon Lathrop, 
the Kailway Hotel — where the Keystone now 
is — kept by Mr. Porter, father of Rev. George 
Porter, then bar-tender for his father. The 
two in the lower part were kept one by John 
Coyle and the other by Michael Riley. There 
were also a number of mercantile houses — 
Benjamin & Van Bergen, Mapes & Mann, 
Hackley & Son, Samuel Hodgdon, George F. 
Knapp, Wm. Eggleston. L. G. Ensign kept a 
jewelry and notion store and repaired watches. 
On the south side of the store where the Harri- 
son House now is, were in large letters " Town- 
send & Poor." But our ever-to-be-respected J. M. 
Poor left about that time for the South, but 
returned in a few years, and has been an active, 
energetic citizen ever since, a granite pillar in 
the church. Grant 8c Wood also occupied the 
store where Mrs. Moffit now is, but left soon, 
succeeded by E. H. Castle, who did a flourish- 
ing business for two or three years and was 



16 

burned out. But now a wealthy citizen of 
Chicago, J. W. Burnham was then a jeweller, 
but soon received an appointment from the 
Governor as Justice of the Peace. E. H. Castle 
and Judson and Stephen Clark had been there 
but a short time. They were teamsters and 
coal dealers, having opened the Fall Brook 
Mines, and sold to the innumerable teams that 
came in from Ithaca, Cortland, and intermediate 
towns for more than one hundred miles north 
and west. 

We found the Delaware and Hudson Com- 
pany struggling in its infancy. We were told 
by Mr. Clarkson that the year before that they 
had mined and run off 800 tons per day 
through the season of canal navigation, but 
had overdone the market, and so this year they 
would not run but 600 tons per day. Mr. 
James Archbald, whose name will ever be re- 
spected and beloved by all who ever knew 
him, was engineer, controller, treasurer, pay- 
master, and general adviser. James Clarkson 
stood side and shoulder with him in all the 
business cares and vicissitudes connected with 
the mining business, and to these^ two noble 
men generation after generation may well look 
back as the pillars of success in the great 
struggle for independence to which this great 



17 

Company now stand forth proudly eminent 
among the great monopolies of the Union. 

We were told by Mr. Frothingham, who 
was at that time clerk in the office, that when 
the Company built their railroad and canal 
from the Hudson river to the mines, they 
borrowed of the State of New York their scrip 
to that amount ; that when put in market in 
New York, in order to obtain ready money to 
pay the expense of building their works, they 
received 1 40,000 less than the face of the 
bonds. Their first charter had but thirty 
years to run, and the State had reserved the 
right to take their works at the expiration of 
the time by paying them their money and in- 
terest. He said that the Company were going 
to ask the State to accept of just what money 
they actually received in ready cash. How 
they settled I never knew, but I presume 
amicably, as they renewed their charter on a 
perpetual basis. 

In the mechanical department J. H. Mc Al- 
pine stood foremost. For many years he w^as 
his own purchaser, manager and paymaster, 
and it was no uncommon occurrence when 
settling with the hands — sometimes not for 
three months — for him to give them his check 
with the letters " I O U so much— J. H. Mc- 



18 

McAlpine." The checks were at par and 
honored at any counter. 

Next in order comes Eobert Maxwell, who 
for some two score years stood at the head of 
the transportation department, and as Rail- 
way King his shadow would throw Yander- 
bilt entirely in the shade. 

On the line of engines up the mountain, 
William Ball was Chief Engineer. He was 
engaged from one of the shops in New York 
on the first starting of the works, when quite 
young, to take charge of the five engines on 
the line. He declined coming until the Com- 
pany gave him a bond of agreement to keep 
him in their employ six months. He re- 
mained in their employ his lifetime, between 
thirty and forty years, beloved and respected 
by all who knew him. Those in his employ 
were, at No. 1 Whitman Brown, who remained 
for a number of years, and then went to Hones- 
dale, where he was killed by the cars. At 
No. 2 was James Johnson, who removed to 
Keokuk, where he died. He was assisted at 
No. 2 by Joseph Gillespie, who died at Provi- 
dence a few months ago. Aftei^vvards by 
Patrick Archbald, who went to Michigan. 
They were succeeded by P. E,. Farrer, who 
died there. No. 3 was run a number of years 



19 

by John Davis, whose sons succeeded him and 
followed in the same line of business. No. 
4 was run forty years ago by Peter Campbell ; 
afterwards by James Cooksou, and later by 
Mr. Ball, brother of William Ball. By a mis- 
step he slipped into the machinery and in a 
moment was a mangled corpse. Orlando Fos- 
ter, formerly from this neighborhood, ran No. 
6 for a long number of years, and was, I be- 
lieve, succeeded by one of his sons, all of whom 
are engineers. So it is that Mr. Archbald 
and all that line of skilful, energetic men 
have passed away and given place to others, 
with new and much improved machinery. The 
first engines were run by or with walking 
beams and heavy balance or fly wheels. The 
engineer had to use the starting bar every time 
the machinery was set in motion. 

There yet remains a number of mechanics 
that were in the Company's employ forty years 
ago, whose gray hairs aie witnesses of their 
usefulness and assiduity, of whom we can call 
to mind Henry Johnson, R. W. Graves and 
Samuel Mills, now in the active scenes of life. 
Also J. B. Smith, who, for some score of years, 
has been the archimedian lever that has raised 
the Pennsylvania Coal Company to its present 
proud position, and while he has been the ar- 



20 

chitect of his own fortune, he has paved the 
way for others to occupy important positions 
in the hrain-field of usefulness. Deacon Jes- 
sup, John Love and son, Mr. Farrer and John 
Few have long since gone to their reward. 
Mr. Marsh, a man long known and respected 
in the community, had the charge of building 
and keeping the railroad in repair fi'om the 
mines to the top of the mountain, until his 
health and strength failed him, when the du- 
ties devolved upon his son. We do not recol- 
lect a single man then in his employ who is 
still among the living. The overseers of the 
out-door labor were Hugh Brown, who went 
to Keokuk with his son-in-law, James Johnson, 
where they both died — Mr. Brown at a good 
old age like a shock of corn fully ripe for the 
harvest. 

To operate a railway at the present time, as 
they had to then, would not only require much 
time, but would seem crude indeed. Instead 
of latches, frogs and switches, when they shifted 
the cars from one track to another, the car was 
brought to a stand-still at a certain point where 
there was an under track at a right angle, and 
the upper track and the car were shoved over 
so as to connect with the other track. This 
was commonly done by a man going around 



21 

with a lever. As to the business of Carbondale 
at that time, outside of the Company's work 
it was of but little amount. Amzi Wilson 
published a paper called the Northern Penn- 
sylvaniariy having removed the whole apparatus 
from Dundaif. It would now be quite a nov- 
elty to see the printer's devil ink the type as 
he did then with his two ink pads resembling 
two black cabbage heads. Eggleston & Reed 
had then advertised a steam foundry where 
Van Bergen & Co.'s iron store now is. The 
bellows were operated on the same principle 
as an old-fashioned hand bellows, and such was 
the anxiety for business that when there was 
a runaway on the planes the first question was, 
" Any wheels broke ]" There were only two 
men employed in the foundry, and not work 
for them near all the time — John Mott, now 
of Hollisterville, and Enos Pedrick, who was 
so crushed under a ilask while perfecting a 
mould as to disable him for life; he died a 
number of years ago. We had almost for- 
gotten to mention our ever respected friend, 
Joseph Coogan, who was then an apprentice 
to the blacksmith trade, and I have no knowl- 
edge but that he has pursued the iron business 
for over forty years within a few rods of the 
same place. 



22 

The late John Simpson, did the principal 
part of the outside blacksmithing for the Com- 
pany, such as making picks, drills, horse shoe- 
ing, &c. Daniel and John Taylor carried on 
wagon making and ironing and blacksmithing 
in general. Mr. Cameron, a long tried and 
useful citizen, carried on the cabinet and un- 
dertaking business for a long number of years, 
when he retired to his now pleasant home in 
Canaan. Henry Johnson, Mr. Burgess and 
Mr. McCune, builders ; the two latter left very 
soon for other parts. J. H. Waterbury, now 
in the far West, was the merchant tailor. The 
late Wm. Root and Mr. Jadwin carried on the 
boot and shoe business. J. W. Burnham car- 
ried on the jewelry business, and after awhile 
kept one horse to let, and when Abram Peck 
kept one to let also, he remarked that "it was 
strange that a man couldn't engage in any kind 
of business but that some one else must engage 
in the same business and spoil it all." The 
physicians were Drs. Sweet, Copeland, Farn:i_ 
ham, and very soon Dr. Jackson came there 
and practiced a number of years. We had for- 
gotten to mention in its proper plaice, Martin 
Curtis, who was an active merchant, with his 
brother William ; the latter died there, and 
the former is now a merchant in Dansville, N. 



23 

Y. We had also forgotten the firm of Gilles- 
pie & White, afterwards Gillespie & Pierce, 
whose history might well furnish the founda- 
tion for quite a novel. They were running a 
small store on the corner opposite the Harrison 
House. They had no more in their store, I 
think, than a travelling merchant could carry 
on his back, and the existence of the firm was 
as limited as their stock of goods. They soon 
got into a muss, w^hen some pugilistic opera- 
tions were called into requisition, and the con- 
sequence was that White retired from the busi- 
ness. Mr. Pierce, then a clerk in the concern, 
proposed to go into partnership with Gillespie, 
which was accepted, H. S. giving his note for 
the amount of one-half the stock — which didn't 
require a very large piece of paper. The next 
thing was to get in a stock of goods. To do 
this, Mr. Pierce repaired to New York, and 
after beating about the city for two weeks, 
succeeded in purchasing a bill of groceries of 
the firm of Dennis & Belden, and on the 
strength of their recommendation bought what 
dry goods they wanted. From that memora- 
ble time the firm never were short of credit. 
The firm of Gillespie & Pierce has been patent 
for many years, having arisen to fortune and 
to fame. 



24 



CHAPTER IV. 

CARBONDALE A CITY. 

When we commenced our two former let- 
ters on Carbondale, we little thought our bab- 
bling pen would run on so far, but the Dela- 
ware and Hudson Company and the business 
people of Carbondale are so nearly identified 
with each other that we see as yet no stopping 
place. In endeavoring to enumerate in con- 
nection with the Delaware and Hudson Com- 
pany, the business people of Carbondale forty 
years ago and later (depending entirely upon 
memory), we find that we have omitted quite a 
number of prominent citizens, men who were 
there then and soon after — S. B. Hathaway, 
teamster, trader and builder, now at Wilkes- 
Barre. Jesse Williams, remarkable for the 
kindly feelings which he always seemed to pos- 
sess, for a number of years a merchant, went 
to Pittston, where he died much respected and 
beloved by all. His brother, Joseph Williams, 
also remarkable for his large-heartedness, re- 
moved to Wilkes-Barre, where he died some 
years ago. Mr. Cox, who carried on the 
bakery business, we have no knowledge of. Mr. 



25 

Prosser, his son-in-law, died some years ago ; 
the last we knew of his widow she was living: in 
Pittston. Stephen K-ogers, for a number of years 
carried on the shoemaking and tanning busi- 
ness, a lover of the Church of England, moved 
to Susquehanna county. Gilbert Burrows, for 
a number of years one of the Justices of the 
Peace in Carbondale, died at Wilkes-Barre ; 
his brother, the harness maker, I have no 
knowledge of. Abraham Peck, for a number 
of years merchant, teacher and surveyor, is now 
a wealthy farmer in the western part of Mich- 
igan. Hon. S. S. Benedict came to Carbondale 
when young and engaged as teacher ; was after- 
wards publisher and Justice of the Peace, and 
has for a number of years been the successful 
editor and publisher of the Carbondale Ad- 
vance, also a member of the Legislature. Lewis 
Higgins was for a number of years a merchant 
tailor, but of late a very useful man in the 
Company's employ and in the city generally. 
In 1850, on the 15th of December, was the 
great fire which laid waste the greater portion 
of the city above the Public Square. In conse- 
quence of this quite a change in the affairs of 
the town was brought about. Before that time 
there never had been any municipal regulations, 
consequently no fire company had been organ- 



26 

ized, or any means of protection against fire or 
outlaws. A meeting was called in what was 
then Pierson's Hall, Mr. Archbald as chairman, 
to take into consideration, the best means to 
pursue under the circumstances in the future. 
It was suggested by Cyrus Abbott to apply at 
once for a City charter and have a Court of 
Record, rather than submit to a borough ordi- 
nance, which was carried by a unanimous vote. 
Accordingly such a charter as would answer 
the wants of the community was drawn up by 
Hon. Lewis Jones, now of Scranton, and Car- 
bondale from that time became a city, and a 
Mayor's Court was soon organized. Judge 
Jessup, of Montrose, was for the time being 
Recorder, and Mr. Archbald the first Mayor, 
succeeded by Mr. Frothingham. Capt. Wm. 
Brennan was Clerk of the Court, and J. H. 
Eastabrook was Marshal, succeeded by Saml. 
Bilger, now of Philadelphia. The aldermen 
were the Associate Judges — Wm. Root and 
others. The first courts were held in the old 
Methodist Church, and the first trial was a 
criminal case, a cross suit between the Common- 
wealth and two Americans, two Irishmen and 
two negroes, for an assault and battery. The 
jury room was in the Lackawanna Hotel, kept 
by Mr. John Gore, now of Carbondale. Judge 



27 

Jessiip was soon succeeded by Judge Conyng- 
hain, who held the office for a number of years, 
and was succeeded by Judge Lathorp, as Re- 
corder. 

But we go back in the history of Carbondale 
forty years, to the time when there was but 
three small churches in the place. The Pres- 
byterians had a very neat little church, without 
dome or steeple, gothic style, just finished by 
Henry Johnson, builder. The Methodists and 
Episcopalians owned one together where the 
present Methodist church now stands. Each 
occupied it on alternate Sabbaths, under an 
agreement that at any time when the Metho- 
dists should pay the Episcopal society $200, 
they were to surrender up to them the entire 
use of the church, which was done under the 
administration of E-ev. A. J. Crandell, when 
the church became a chartered institution. The 
organ of the Episcopal church was left there 
for some years, and used by Dr. Farnham for 
the benefit of the M. E. Church, which caused 
some dissatisfaction among the older members, 
as they didn't think there was much real Chris- 
tian vitality in that kind of a machine. Prob- 
ably there are at present those who recollect 
the smile that used to pervade the audience as 
soon as the hymn was given out. Mr. Prosser, 



28 

who so kindly led the singing, used to speak 
out in plain Hinglish — " The ladies will take 
the line between the H-air and the Base, and 
Dr. Farnham will give us the kay upon the 
H-oro:an/' Rev. Mr. Marks who officiated there 
at that time for the Episcopal church, one of 
the most talented and refined men, generous 
even to a fault, we found last summer in Huron, 
on the south shore of Lake Erie, now an old 
man of four score years. The Catholic church, 
then quite an inferior building, soon gave way 
for the one which so recently had to be removed 
to give place for the present noble structure, 
which would seem to well nigh defy the ravages 
of time. The other two, Presbyterian and Metho- 
dist, have given way to more costly and commo- 
dious structures. The Baptists were without 
a church or pastor for a number of years, until 
Mr. Baily came there, a young man, fresh from 
his preparatory studies, and labored assiduously, 
not only in building a very convenient and com- 
fortable church edifice and seeing it paid for, 
but gathered around him a respectable congre- 
gation, and labored with them. He not only, 
like Paul, planted the church, but like Apollos 
staid there and watered it most of the time 
until the angel death said unto him, " Come 
up higher." No doubt such was his love for 



29 

his church and people that in the language of 
one of old he said, " I am with you till the 
world shall end." His language no doubt 
now is — 

"I have not gone to some foreign sliore, 
Lo ! I am with you evermore." 



CHAPTER V. 

INCIDENTS. 



I BELIEVE we closed our last chapter to the 
Advance with some remarkes in memory of the 
late Rev. Mr. Bailey and his connection with 
the Baptist Church of your city. There has 
been a long array of ministers and fathers in 
your city within the last forty years in the 
various churches, whom we might mention. 
With some of them we have had but a partial ac- 
quaintance, but all, we presume, have long since 
built up a monument in the hearts and memory 
of their church and people more pure and en- 
during than the Parian marble. The Welsh 
people had a little building of their own soon 
after they came over the seas to operate the 
mines, and it was quite a treat to go in there in 
time of their worship. Although we could not 



30 

understand a word that was said, yet it was in- 
teresting and pleasant to see how they enjoyed 
themselves, thus far from home and friends, in 
worshipping in their own native tongue and 
according to the dictates of their own con- 
sciences. 

Poetry and literature always seemed to find 
a poor or barren soil from which to take root 
in Carbondale. The greatest effort that we re- 
collect of ever being made was by some disaf- 
fected persons, who had been members of the 
temperance society and held other positions. 
They wrote a number of chapters in chronicle 
style, either to show their wit or to throw 
disgust upon certain ones who were not only 
possessed of some peculiarities, but determined 
to carry them out. These productions were only 
one step from the sublime, and that step was to 
the ridiculous, so that no printer in the city 
would take stock in the concern by admitting 
them to their columns. The next thins: was 
how to bring them before the public. x\t length 
a plan was hit upon. There was a young ne- 
gro in Honesdale, whom Lawyer Throop had 
furnished with a few articles and allowed him 
to fit up a room, yclept a printing office, where 
he printed a little paper called Peters Express. 
One of the ring was a clerk in the Company's 



31 

office, and the manuscript was sent by him to 
another clerk in the Store House at Honesdale, 
as Company papers, and from thence were taken 
to Pete's Express office to be printed. No 
sooner did the darkey editor set his eyes on the 
unexpected documents than his ivories showed 
quite an elongation, and the whites of his two 
eyes glowed with enthusiasm, to find himself the 
recipient of such unexpected patronage. The 
papers were regularly published, with two or 
three columns headed, "The Chronicles ofCar- 
bondale." They were returned by the same 
postal express ( the Company's freight ) free of 
postage, and were delivered around the Com- 
pany's office, machine shops, &c., and afforded 
a great deal of merriment for the young as well 
as some side-shaking for the older and more 
sedate. Whence they originated, or from 
whence they came, no one knew outside of the 
ring. The last one was with regard to a found- 
ling which was left on the back porch at the 
house of one of our then most respectable citi- 
zens, commencing on this wise: "Now it came 
to pass that in the first month, on the 8th day of 
the month, at about the time of the evening ob- 
lation, as the servants were assembled together 
at a house near the river side, that the voice of 
a young child was heard upon the porch," Sec. 



32 

But the author very wisely hid himself behind 
or under a bushel; not so with the greatest poet 
that ever graced that city, " Mother Tngerick," 
as she was called, who let her light shine. 
While her husband busied himself in his little 
shop, making butter ladles, potato mashers, or 
turning rolling pins, for domestic purposes, his 
nobler half would be in the house weaving or 
writing poetry. 

" No one would suppose that she ever strode the horse Pegassus, 
Or took a nap on Mount Peruftssus." 

but on any eventful occasion the scenes would 
be delineated in the most glowing or tragic 
manner, as the case might require. It was not 
unfrequent that, true to the purpose of obtain- 
ing an honest living, she would appear in her 
august person among a crowd of people, either 
in the street or bar-room, with her articles for 
domestic use on one arm, and her ballads on 
the other, offering them for sale at a low 
figure. 

We are here reminded of a scene which 
Mother Ingerick dramatized most pathetically. 
About a quarter of a century ago, the company 
built a dam, and earthwork a little above the 
city, across the E-acket brook, as a reservoir, 
covering several acres. The year after it was 
built there came a heavy rain, lasting several 



83 

days. The embankment gave way and a tre- 
mendous sweep of water came rushing down, 
uprooting trees more than two feet through, 
bringing them down with logs and rubbish, 
partially stopping the course at the foot of No. 
One Hill, and turning the water down the town, 
sendinof a volume down Church and Main 
streets. The first that some families knew of 
the flood their doors burst open, and in came 
the water more than knee deep, upsetting 
bureaus, tables, &c. A green tree, more than 
thirty feet long, was brought down and left 
across the street between W. Burr's mansion 
and Jadwin's park. Another was left on the 
corner where Van Bergen & Co.'s office stands, 
and the rush of water down Main street was so 
powerful that it swept off a pile of grind-stones 
on the platform of F. P. Grow's store, where 
Corby's shoe store now stands. But the rush 
down the railroad was still more powerful. A 
train of cars had just started up the plane, 
loaded with coal, when the water struck it, and 
the engineer w^as taken all aback to see his 
engine running one way and the rope the other. 
When the cars had gone the length of the rope, 
they upset and there hung by the rope. The 
flood did not seem to take interest enough in 

the mischief it had already caused to stop to 

2* 



34 

look at it, but rushed on to the Lackawanna, 
whose banks were already full, and which by 
this auxiliary burst its boundaries and rushed 
directly for the mines, which soon filled, 
drowning two young men by the name of Davis. 
When the water had partially subsided an 
effort was made to pump it out of the mines, 
but before they had accomplished much some 
of the machinery gave way and the pumping 
stopped. In order to repair the machinery, an 
agent (A. Ruthven) was sent in haste to New 
York to purchase a submarine dress or armor. 
To see it fitted on the mechanic made one think 
of the culprit under the gallows, as he turned 
pale and his knees trembled like those of Bel- 
shazzar of old. It was a number of weeks be- 
fore order was restored and business resumed 
its natural channel. 

We are sorry that we did not preserve some 
copies of those pathetic lines, which gave so 
much truer picture than our pen possibly can 
do. We only recollect two lines — 

" The dam it broke at Durfee's mill, 
And so the mines did quickly fill." 

One prominent citizen, now of your city, was 
so affected by the tragical lines that he repeated 
for several days — 

" Come all young men a warnini^ take, 
For Durfee's dam will surely break." 



35 
CHAPTER VI. 

ACCIDENTS AT THE MINES. 

Since we have traced up something of the 
history of Carbondale as well as we could from 
memory, we would not be unmindful of the 
dreadful calamity that befell that city on the 
16th of January, 1844, by which upwards of 
sixty persons were buried alive, and fourteen 
were still missing. The following we mostly 
copy from the Carbondale Democrat : 

About nine o'clock on Monday morning, an 
accident occurred in the mines in our village, 
more appalling and dreadful than anything that 
has taken place here, or that comes within the 
knowledge of the oldest miners among us. The 
roof of the mines fell in, almost simultaneously, 
to the extent of half a mile or upwards in length, 
and about forty rods in width, burying in its 
fall, or shutting up in subterranean caverns, 
about sixty workmen. Of these, forty-six es- 
caped through the various chambers, some with 
little injury, others severely wounded. But, sad 
to relate, fourteen, dead or alive, were still im- 
prisoned in the bowels of the earth. The No. 
1 Mines had been working, that is, the pillars 



36 

had been groaning or cracking, under the weight 
of the mountain that rested on them, for some 
days ; but as the phenomena was not new, 
nothing serious was apprehended from it. The 
effect of such workings is inconsiderable, ex- 
tending but a few yards, and producing no other 
danger than what is occasioned by the falling of 
pieces of slate, of which there is generally 
sufficient warning to enable one to escape from 
its reach. On Monday morning of the week, 
Mr. Clarkson, the Mining Engineer, went into 
the mines before the hour of work, to examine 
their condition. Though all seemed quiet, to 
increase their safety, some additional props with 
roofing were ordered to be put up. The work- 
men had been but a short time in the mines 
when a heavy cloud of smoke and dust came 
rushing out of that and the adjoining mine, 
attended with a current of air sufficient to re- 
move cars, large stones, &c., with its force. 
Workmen that were then entering: were raised 
from their feet and thrown violently backward 
against the pillars and other objects, many of 
them receiving severe wounds. A driver, 
Patrick Clark, had his horse instantly killed, 
and he was thrown so violently against the cars 
as to break several bones and cause his death 
the next day. Huge Fitzpatrick and John 



37 

McHale were severely hurt in the same man- 
ner. Dennis Farrell was nearly killed by 
stones falling on him; his brother, to relieve 
him, ran for an iron bar, and was not seen after. 
Mr. F. was afterwards extricated from the 
stones by two other men, and placed against the 
side of the mines, where, being wholly disabled, 
he was left, while they ran for their lives from 
under the falling mass. He was afterwards 
brought out by Mr. Bryden, Assistant Engi- 
neer, though at a great peril to himself. To 
Mr. Bryden is entitled great credit for his 
courageous and energetic efforts to save those 
involved in the calamity. Mr. John Hosie, an 
overseer in the mines, was for forty-eight hours 
supposed to be lost; but after encountering 
numberless dangers and difficulties, he was 
enabled to work his way out. An account of 
his adventures, while it would be of much in- 
terest, we are obliged to omit. His having 
been so recently married, the feelings of his 
wife during that time may be imagined, but 
cannot be described. 

The following is a list of the greatest mine 
disasters on record : 

14 killed at Carbondale, Pa., by caving in of 
40 acres of a mine, in 1844. Five bodies were 
never recovered. One man was two days in a 



38 

mine. 209 at Hartley colliery, England, in 
1862; 357 at The Oaks, in 1868; 13 at Dia- 
mond mine disaster, Scranton, Pa., March 31st, 
1868; 53 at Ferndale colliery, Wales, June 
lOth, 1868; 53 at St. Helen's colliery, July, 
1868 ; 50 at colliery explosion, Jemappes, 
Belgium, August 10th, 186S; 28 at Lan- 
cashier, England, 1S68; 321 at mine near 
Dresden, Saxony, August, 28th, 1869; 110 
lost their lives at Avondale, Pa., September. 
6th, 1869. 



CHAPTEE VII. 

THE NEW BANK BUILDING. 

The Miners' and Mechanics' Savings Bank 
of this city have removed to their new banking 
building. As this building is an admirably 
constructed and elegant one, so thoroughly 
creditable to the officers of the bank, and to 
the town of which it is a prominent ornament, 
it seems to be entitled to more than a brief 
mention. 

By way of contrast, we may allude, usefully 
perhaps, to the unfortunate fact that there has 
been far too little of that kind of building in 



89 

town. Carbondale is, and has been through- 
out her whole history, emphatically a business 
town. Its buildings have been plain, and have 
given evidence of having been erected solely 
for present use and business, with little or no 
expenditure for ornament. Not only our dwell- 
ings, but our stores, our shops and our offices, 
all, until quite recently, seem to have been 
constructed upon this principle — for utility 
only. Hence, while business has been good, 
and our citizens generally prosperous, we have 
not been able to boast of fine buildings. Other 
towns, much younger, and certainly no better 
able to make outlays for the sake of style and 
elegance, have far surpassed us in this respect. 
They have built not for the present merely, 
but for the future, giving their towns the ap- 
pearance of thrift and permanence, and of their 
intending to stay, and abide by the interests 
of their town, and cherish it as a home. And 
it is worthy of remark that this disposition to 
erect elegant and costly buildings, instead of 
being accounted an extravagance, has been ac- 
cepted as a patent and sure evidence of thrift 
and growth, and has conduced largely to their 
business prosperity. Capitalists are attracted 
to them as " go ahead towns," and have helped 
to swell the tide of success. As a consequence. 



40 

real estate and rents advance at rapid rates, 
until in a very few years they reach many times 
their former prices. 

But there is a change for the better even in 
our own plain, substantial and prosperous 
town. Our business men are becoming enter- 
prising, and seem to be inspired with some- 
thing of that faith in the town and willingness 
to make outlays for its improvement, which 
should always have been cherished. They 
have caught the spirit of improvement. We 
have now not only some elegant dwellings, but 
some really fine brick blocks for business, sev- 
eral excellent church edifices, one of them 
among the finest and most beautiful brick 
churches in the State. Our old, solid and 
prosperous bank, The First National, has an 
excellent banking building, and now the offi- 
cers of the Miners' and Mechanics' Savings 
Bank have erected a banking building of sur- 
passing elegance. These officers are composed 
mainly of our own prosperous and solid busi- 
ness men, as follows : President, John Jermyn ; 
Vice Presidents, R. Manville and E. E. Hen- 
drick ; Cashier, James E,. Lathropj Directors, 
John Jermyn, J. B. Van Bergen, Peter Byrne, 
Alfred Pascoe, E. E. Hendrick, John Stuart, 
G. S. T. Alexander, W. W. Watt and Thos. 



41 

B. Lathrop. They are men of standing and 
character, and possess a large aggregate of 
means. 

The building is centrally located, being on 
the Harrison House lot — is three stories in 
height, or two stories and English basement, 
constructed substantially of iron, brick and 
stone, combining strength, durability and 
beauty, and may be considered nearly, if not 
fully, fire proof. The first floor, or English 
basement with floor just below the sidewalk, 
furnishes two very fine rooms, and will be 
rented for business purposes. For many kinds 
of trade, it is one of the best locations in the 
county. 

The second floor of the building contains 
the banking apartments, exhibiting in rare 
combination, elegance, convenience and good 
taste. One enters by massive black walnut 
doors into a beautiful banking oflice, with 
tasteful counter, desks, &c., all of black wal- 
nut, and beautifully lighted with large French 
plate glass windows. The only entrance be- 
hind the counter is by a door next the front 
windows, whence to get to the vault one has 
to pass by the cashier and employees of the 
bank, who are well provided with m,eans to 
arrest the progress of an unwelcome visitor. 



42 

The vault is large, and would seem to be 
fully fire and burglar proof. The foundation 
wall commences five feet below the floor of the 
basement, fifteen feet below the floor of the 
banking room, and is composed of large blocks 
of very hard conglomerate rock laid in cement. 
The floor of the vault is wholly composed of 
one large solid stone. The vault is composed 
of stone so hard that dressing them was found 
to be nearly an impossibility, and sharpening 
chisels was nearly as brisk a business as dress- 
ing the stone. The blocks are two feet or up- 
wards in thickness, and some of them about 
seven feet in length. In the centre of each 
block is a half sphere cavity to admit a cannon 
ball between the upper and lower stone, so as 
to prevent most effectually their ever being 
moved by burglars. It would take more chis- 
els than a dozen men could carry to dig through 
those blocks of stone, and apparently some 
weeks of hard " State prison" work. The door 
of the vault is a double one, made by Herrings 
& Farrell from the hardest metal known, and 
cost $1,500. It has two dials, designed to be 
set and worked by different persons, neither 
of whom can alone gain access to the vault. 
It would seem that anything inside of this 
vault, with the doors closed, must be absolutely 



48 

safe. But there is yet more. Inside the vault 
is yet another safe from Herring & Farrell's 
establishment, of the most defiant description, 
embracing all the latest improvements, and 
designed for keeping greenbacks, bonds and 
other valuables, and to make certainty doubly 
sure. We have omitted to mention that above 
the ceiling of the vault is about five feet of 
solid and impenetrable concrete, all surmounted 
by another solid stone just below the floor of 
the upper story. The vault contains abundant 
conveniences in the shape of shelves, book- 
racks, pig€on holes, &c., for books and papers, 
and is altogether wonderfully complete and 
safe. The directors' room is in the rear of the 
vault, and is beautifully finished. This and 
the banking room are each furnished with low 
grate fire-places, and each with elegant gas 
chandeliers. 

The upper story furnishes two beautiful offices, 
which are also for rent. Both the second and 
third stories are furnished with water, and the 
conveniences and modern improvements in both 
stories seem to be complete and perfect. 

The iron front of the building is a beautiful 
one, furnished by the Dickson Manufacturing 
Company, of Scranton, and is tastefully painted. 

The contract for erecting the building was 



44 

taken much below the estimates of other build- 
ers, by Messrs. Jermyn & Hendrick, the presi- 
dent and one of the vice presidents of the bank, 
and they have seemed resolved that everything 
pertaining to it should be of the most perfect 
description, and done in the best possible man- 
ner. So far as we can see, they have succeeded 
fully. The work has been in charge of J. A. 
Hymer, Esq , of Gibsonburg, one of the most 
skilful architects and builders in northern 
Pennsylvania. 

Much more might be properly said in de- 
scribing this very hne building. Had any one 
predicted a few years since the erection of such 
an one in our town, or such dwellings and 
stores, and churches, and school buildings, as 
we now have, or such shops, offices and depot 
buildings as the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Company now have here, or so extensive a 
foundry and machine works as Van Bergen & 
Co. are erecting, or iron bridges over the 
Lackawanna, or water hydrants and street 
lamps upon our principal streets, he would 
have been considered a wild and visionary 
zealot, and an over sanguine friend of the 
town. And this last and crowning improve- 
ment, the new bank building, now that it is 
done, all can see is a most wise and proper in 



45 

vestment, and that we ought to have more, 
and doubtless shall have more, of such build- 
ings. We hope the splendid and commendable 
enterprise of our vigorous young bank may 
greatly stimulate the spirit of improvement, 
and thus prove a rich blessing to the town. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MAIL ROUTES. 

Forty years since there was a mail route from 
Wilkes-Barre to Honesdale, and John Searle, of 
Pittston, was the mail contractor, and G. A. 
Whiting driver as far as Carbondale. After- 
wards it passed into the hands of John Ken- 
nedy, in consequence of which he removed to 
Carbondale. As there was only now and then 
a passenger, they generally ran a lumber wagon, 
so that they could carry freight if they chose ; 
but after the country became more settled, and 
Scran ton began to rise, Harvey Nash came on 
there and put on a fine coach and drove it him- 
self, making it a very pleasant and popular route. 
Afterwards it went into the hands of Wm. W. 
Bronson, who put on two daily lines of coaches 
to Scranton and back; but just as he was reap- 



46 

ing a golden harvest the railroad went into 
operation, which cast a gloom over the stage 
business, plank road and all. 

Before Carbondale came into existence there 
was only a straggling road along the Lacka- 
wanna river from Providence, which was then 
a trading and whiskey vending corner and only 
known as Bazorville, The main travelled road 
north and south, from two miles north of Provi- 
dence, went up over the hills through Green- 
field ; but no sooner had Carbondale sprung 
into existence, than it was found necessary to 
have a good road down through the valley, as 
Carbondale was greatly dependent upon the 
valley for supplies, as well as the valley being 
dependent upon it for a market whereby to 
get their money. So a company was soon or- 
ganized, and a charter obtained for a toll road 
from Carbondale ten miles to where it connected 
with the turnpike road that ran through Green- 
field. This ten miles of road proved a rich 
investment to the stockholders, a vast amount 
of lumber, flour, grain, Sec, being continually 
hauled over the road, then running directly 
south from Jermyn over the heavy grade of a 
mountain, and leaving Archbald on the left. 
But about the year lb52 or 1853, there was a 
plank road mania throughout the country, 



47 

and the people of Carbondale were no excep- 
tion to the contagion ; and so the charter of the 
Carbondale and Blakely Turnpike Company 
was changed to that of the Carbondale Turn- 
pike and Plank Road Company. 

As a level road was desirable, the road over 
the mountain was abandoned, and the new road 
was to be via Archbald and Peckville. So long 
as the turnpike company kept on their char- 
tered road it was all very well ; but when they 
came to take possession of the town road, and 
lay their planks upon it, charging the inhabi- 
tants three or four cents per mile for driving 
over it, it was quite another thing. Thus sprung 
up an anti-plank road war, and no sooner were 
the plank laid down than the inhabitants turned 
out en masse and threw the plank one side. At 
this juncture a writ was issued from the 
Mayor's Court in Carbondale for the arrest of 
the offenders, and put in the hands of J. A. 
Easterbrook, then Marshal of the city. But 
they didn't arrest worth a cent, and the Mar- 
shal came back empty as he went away. 

However, the road was built through, which 
did very well until a rain came, and in the 
hollows the plank were all afloat, making a 
good play spot for boys to sail around on their 
little rafts. The next thing was to drain those 



48 

water spots; so that, with a good deal of 
nursing, the road was made to answer for two 
or three years, when the engineers thought a 
gravel or pounded stone road was far better 
than a vegetable road. The road was a failure 
after all, and those who sold their stock at fifty 
cents on the dollar did better than those who 
bought it. About this time the Delaware and 
Hudson Company had run their gravity road 
as far as Archbald, and afterwards to Olyphant, 
not intending it for anything but a coal road; 
but Edward Garland and I. Decker conceived 
the idea of running a passenger car over the 
route to Olyphant. Accordingly, they fitted 
up a lumber car with rough, temporary seats, 
and invited a number of the citizens, mostly 
ladies, to a free ride, which was much enjoyed 
by all. Very soon the company entered into 
the spirit of it, and got up some very comfort- 
able upholstered cars, which answered for some 
ten years, I think, and in the meantime ex- 
tended their railroad to Scranton. On the 4th 
of July, 1871, they had a formal opening of 
the new locomotive road from Carbondale to 
Scranton, when the old gravity road was given 
up entirely for the purpose for which it was first 
designed — that of transportation. The new 
road being finished, that, in connection with the 



49 

Jefferson Branch Railroad, opened up a direct 
line of communication (except twenty miles 
from Susquehanna to Nineveh, which has since 
been finished), from Harrisburg, the capital of 
Pennsylvania, to the capital of New York at 
Albany, and so on to Saratoga and Whitehall. 
From Carbondale to Susquehanna is about 35 
miles ; from there to Albany, 145 ; from Albany 
to Whitehall, 74; and from Whitehall to 
Montreal, about 180 miles, thus giving the 
Delaware and Hudson Company over four 
hundred miles of direct railroad communication 
north up into the cold country where coal will 
always be appreciated. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FLOUR RIOT IN CARBONDALE. 

Thirty years since, I think it was in or about 
the year 1842, one of the wildest scenes oc- 
curred that we ever witnessed in the usually 
peaceful city of Carbondale. To give the 
reader a just idea concerning it, we will have 
to go back to the first settlement and the build- 
ing of the Delaware and Hudson Works. Up 
to that time the whole valley, including the 



50 

Wyoming, was an inland and secluded country, 
and no public works carried on, either in coal, 
lumber, or iron. As there were no means of 
getting their produce to market outside of the 
valley, only as they ran down the Susquehanna 
river or the North Branch canal (after that was 
built), into the Chesapeake Bay ; then across 
the peninsula by the ship canal, and up the 
Delaware Bay to Philadelphia — and vice versa. 
What little coal was used in and about Phila- 
delphia could be obtained from the Lehigh at a 
much cheaper rate ; so that the opening of the 
Delaware and Hudson canal was a God-send 
to the entire valley, as the coal works opened 
up a great market for the produce of the valley, 
especially of their flour. Their lands were then 
very prolific for wheat, and it was the principal 
article from which they could obtain their so 
much needed cash. That led to their purchas- 
ing of a great portion of their goods and mer- 
chandise in New York rather than Phila- 
delphia, and have them come on the Delaware 
and Hudson canal and railroad. They would 
send their teams up loaded with flour, and come 
back with goods. But of the time ojf which we 
write there was something of a flour panic, and 
western flour had gone up to panic prices, and 
the flour merchants down the valley were 



61 

taking what advantage they could in lining 
their pockets with the filthy lucre. The princi- 
pal one was the late lamented James Mott, of 
Blakely or Providence. 

The company (Mr. Archbald) realizing the 
wants of their employees, sent to New York 
and purchased a large quantity of flour at a 
much lower figure, and bringing it over their 
line, delivered it to their workmen free of trans- 
portation. Such was the strife for this flour that 
dozens of women would be constantly waiting 
at the store-house, to seize upon a barrel the 
moment it arrived, and it was no uncommon 
thing to see one, two, or a delegation of women 
on the coal cars, going up the road to meet a 
car load of flour, and seize upon a barrel a la 
clothes pin, not surrendering their right until it 
was safely housed in their domiciles. Our friend 
Mott, who always had an eye to the almighty 
dollar, did not feel just right about it, and re- 
solved to put a stop to it, knowing that the com- 
pany's charter restricted them to the business 
of mining and trade in coal exclusively, and 
have no other dealings in merchandise or trade 
whatever. Thus he (Mott) raised quite a muss 
about it. Whether he had actually commenced 
proceedings against the company or not we do 
not recollect ; but the indignation of every man, 



62 

woman and child in the company's employ knew 
no bounds, and at a time when the tide of in- 
dignation was at its highest pitch Mott's team, 
loaded with flour, made its appearance in the 
streets. It being the day after the work in the 
mines had been suspended for awhile, and abo 
pay day, there were hundreds in the streets, and 
that too before the Father Matthew temperance 
society had been formed. They gathered around 
the load and began punching the driver and 
horses, yelling and shouting in the most vocif- 
erous manner, and throwing snow balls and 
missiles of every description. This was down 
on Main street. When we became cognizant 
of the affair we repaired there with Mr. Fro- 
thingham, and while he was trying to disperse 
the mob, we went to the hotel and tried to get 
the team and driver into safe quarters. But 
no one dare let them in, as they felt sure if they 
did their barns would be burned. Seeing the 
tempest waxing hotter and hotter, we armed 
ourself with a sled stake and jumped on the 
load, ordering the driver to put his team 
through the crowd to our barn. While on the 
way naught was heard but the yells and hoots 
of an enraged people, accompanied by snow 
balls and every available thing they could pick 
up along the street. On arriving within the 



53 

gate we jumped off the wagon and made some 
threats of no small import if one of them stepped 
foot on our premises. While the melee was 
in full blast and a shower of missiles falling 
thick and fast around us, Mr. Archbald ap- 
peared in the midst of the crowd, and after a 
very few of those kind words which every man 
in his employ considered as more commanding 
than Napoleon with his banners, their features 
dropped, and in the language of Gen. Joseph 
Warren, when the British made a raid on 
Boston, '* They retired, they fled, and in that 
flight they found their only safety." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE IMPROVEMENTS OF CARBONDALE. 

The first public livery business of Carbondale 
— which has grown to its present importance 
— was commenced about the year 1848 or '50 
by Cyrus Abott, with two or three horses, where 
Williams & Curtis' bakery now is. It being 
about the time of the building of the Erie Rail- 
road, it proved a very lucrative business. After 
running it some five years, and increasing his 
stock to eight or ten horses, he sold out to 



54 

Francis Perkins, who, after a year and a half, 
sold out to Darfee & Son, who ran it together 
for twelve years, when the elder withdrew in 
favor of the younger son, Thomas R., so that 
the business has now been carried on seven 
years under the firm name of Durfee & Brother. 
It would be somewhat surprising now to be put 
back nineteen years with just the outfit and 
equipage of that time, with three or four top 
buggies and a couple of hacks, one three seated 
and the other two, two or three cutters and one 
two-horse sleigh. The first fancy carriage ever 
owned in Carbondale was bought in New York 
for $200 by the writer, and it was remarked 
by a prominent merchant at that time that he 
never thought the city would ever get to that. 
The first omnibus was bought at Easton by A. 
B. Durfee, which was used for a number of 
years for the transportation of passengers to 
and from the cars, until the increase of business 
required a much larger one, and then a second 
one was purchased. The Durfees have carried 
on the livery business nineteen years, and the 
"bus" business twelve years, and are now 
using sixteen or eighteen horses. The Briggs 
Brothers, also are using nearly as many more 
in staging and livery. Probably there are but 
yery few of the citizens of Carbondale but that 



OD 



have been tributary to one of these establish- 
ments. 

THE CARBONDALE LIBRARY. 

In watching the rise and progress of the city 
of Carbondale for the past forty years, we have 
noticed that much, if not all, the important re- 
sults of that fast growing city have come up to 
their present grand proportions from very small 
beginnings What seems to take a strong hold 
of the minds of the people there now is that 
of establishing a Public Library, and we are 
glad to see so deep an interest taken in it now 
in its incipient stages. Libraries have always 
held an important position in the world of 
mankind ever since the stately stoppings of 
civilization have made their impress upon our 
earth, and is an institution which is entitled 
not only to the respect of every person, but has 
a claim as strong as a title deed to every man's 
liberality. It has had the support of every 
lover of literature, and the good will of man- 
kind, ever since that massive collection of liter- 
ature was shelved in the Temple Serapeum, 
when most of its rolls and scrolls were brought 
from India. Ptolemy Sotor has the honor of 
being its founder; Ptolemy Philadelphus en- 
larged it ; others increased it over 700,000 vol- 



66 

umes. Nearly destroyed by Julius Caesar, it 
was replenished by Cleopatra, and to further 
increase it the following unique plan was de- 
vised : To seize all the books brought to Egypt 
by the Assyrians and Greeks and foreigners 
and transcribe them, handing the transcriptions 
to the owners, and putting the originals into 
the library. Book burning is a business com- 
mon to both ancients and moderns. The 
blinded zealots of the bygone ages strove to 
obliterate every vestige of that historical knowl- 
edge which distinguished the nations of anti- 
quity. John Philaponus, a noted philosopher, 
being in Alexandria, when the city was taken, 
and being permitted to converse with Amron, 
the Arabian general, solicited that inestimable 
gift at his hands, the Royal Library. At first 
the general was inclined to grant the favor, but 
upon writing the Caliph he received the follow- 
ing answer, dictated by a spirit of unpardon- 
able fanaticism : 

" If those ancient manuscripts and writings 
of the Eastern nations and the Greeks agree 
with the Koran, or Book of God, they are use- 
less, and need not be preserved. But if they 
disagree they are pernicious, and ought to be 
destroyed." 

The torch was applied, and wretched bar- 



57 

barisra was for the time triumphant. Says a 
recent traveller : 

" Sensations of sadness thrilled my being's 
core while walking over ashes and ruins that 
were once ablaze with the literature of the East. 
Never for a moment have I felt that it was all 
for the best, the burning of the Alexandria 
Library." 



CHAPTEE XL 

LAND TITLES, AND J. W. JOHNSON AND W. P. MILLER. 

All the lands for miles north and south of 
Carbondale were formerly owned by Lord John 
Russel, of England ; and J. R. Priestly, an Eng- 
lishman, of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, was 
his agent for the sale of the lands. The reason 
for their being so many fancy names to the 
various tracts was that the government did not 
want the lands to be monopolized by any one 
person, but sold to actual settlers; so that it 
had to be taken under different titles, such as 
Susan Diller, and other fictitious names. The 
tracts were surveyed and laid out in lots of 
400 acres, with 60 acres allowance for roads 

and highways, and sold at the nominal price 

3* 



58 

of four dollars per acre. I believe there was 
no reservation of coal until some years after 
the Delaware and Hudson Company bought, 
built up and started their works. What they 
paid for theirs I do not know, but probably 
not more than four dollars per acre. James 
W. Johnson came in about this time and pur- 
chased a large tract, now owned by G. W. 
Morss, for four dollars per acre, where he soon 
built a saw mill and tannery ; also a large dwell- 
ing and boarding house, being right in the 
midst of a dense forest of hemlock timber for 
his mills and bark for his tannery. The great- 
est drawback to his business was the want of 
a road to Carbondale. He had no other way 
than to go by way of the foot of No. 3 plane ; 
a tremendous hill to go over both ways, and 
bad roads at that. After running his tannery 
some three or four years, it was burned while 
he was away from home. Johnson got his in- 
surance and rebuilt his tannery, but soon leased 
it to E,. D. Lathrope. As the only means then 
of transportation from New York was by the 
canal, the hides to be tanned through the win- 
ter had to be got before the close of navigation. 
Wm. P. Miller, of Gold street, New York, 
furnished the hides, with the condition that 
they were to be tanned through the winter 



59 

and the leather returned in the spring, and 
after taking out his pay for the hides, paid the 
balance in money to Lathrope. But just be- 
fore the canal opened, the fore part of May, 
James W. Johnson came on with two writs of 
fieri facias and levied on all Lathrope's teams, 
leather, wagons, land, tannery, mills, etc. It 
turned out that about the first of March, that 
same spring, James W. sold Lathrope the 
above property, taking his non- exemption 
notes for the sum of $20,000. As soon as 
Miller heard of the transaction, he sent up his 
agent to get possession of the leather, which 
had been drawn to Carbondale and stored in a 
building there. But there it was, in a position 
where possession was nine points of the law, and 
Miller found that his only remedy was to re- 
plevy the leather. To do that, in case he 
should fail to gain his suit, he was required to 
furnish bail for the forthcoming of the money ; 
but there were very few at that day that hank- 
ered for a chance to go bail for $20,000 to be 
decided by law, so Miller found that about the 
best and only thing he could do was to take 
what they offered him — the tannery, mills, and 
lands after the timber had been cut off. John- 
son then sold his leather for ready cash, proba- 
bly giving Lathrope a good slice for placing 



60 

high-low-Jack in the game. Johnson then 
went to Pittston and bought coal property at 
the lower end of the village, right by the basin 
in the Pennsylvania canal, and started the first 
coal works in Pittston, selling his coal right at 
the mouth of the mines to boatmen, to be 
shipped off on the canal. He also owned the 
coal lands at Dickson for awhile, but he has 
long since gone to his reward. Miller, after 
getting possession of the tannery property, run 
it on his own hook for awhile, appointing Wm. 
Dimmock as his agent. He also established a 
store in the city, with the late Henry Wilbur 
clerk and sole manager. But ere two years 
had made their round, Miller found quite a 
difference in running a tannery up in this wild 
country, and in buying and selling leather and 
hides by the cargo in New York, and was glad 
to sell out to the present proprietor, G. L. 
Morss, who has run it successfully for a long 
number of years, acquiring a competency. He 
has built a stately palace, cleared off the land, 
and made it a pleasant and desirable home, 
with all its pleasant surroundings. 



61 
CHAPTER XII. 

REV. OLIVER CRANE. 

While sketching something of the history 
of Carbondale, and some of the citizens that 
have made it what it is, perhaps there are but 
few men whose names will be longer remem- 
bered, and cherished with more interest, than 
the name of Rev. Oliver Crane. To sketch 
the history of one like him, especially while 
he is living, seems like assuming quite a re- 
sponsibility ; but as his labors (most probably) 
are finished there, and the time may come 
when some abler pen will take up the subject 
of handing down to posterity the history of 
Carbondale, with its most illustrious person- 
ages. To such we give the few incidents 
which have come under our notice. The few 
years while we lived so near neighbor to him, 
the whole time that we lived so near each other, 
the question never went out as of old, '* Who 
is my neighbor ?" No matter whether in the 
street, in the omnibus, the railroad cars, or his 
own house or study, we always found him the 
same genial, social, confiding person, and from 
him we learned much of the manners and cus- 



62 

toms of the oriental nations, as also much of 
his eventful life. 

He was born in 1822, graduated at Yale 
College in 1845, and at Union Theological 
Seminary in 1848, sailed as missionary to Tur- 
key, January 3d, 1849, and spent four years 
in different parts, when he returned to the 
United States. After preaching in Huron, New 
York, he settled in 1857 at Waverly, New 
York, and in 1860 returned again to his for- 
mer missionary field in Turkey. On account 
of the poor health of his family, he returned 
again to the United States in the fall of 1864, 
and accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church 
in Carbondale. In 1870, after six years of 
labor there, he resigned and removed to New 
Jersey, to the assistance of his aged mother, 
who has since died; and in 1872 he took an- 
other trip across to Europe, intending to visit 
the scenes of his former labors, but on account 
of an injury received on the way, was obliged 
to return to his home in Morristown, New 
Jersey. 

It is with much pleasure that we remember 
the many pleasant hours and agreeable asso- 
ciations in the presence of not only Mr. Crane, 
but those of his no less interesting family, 
which were always scenes of interest. People 



63 

lavish money, time and expense to visit for- 
eign lands, to learn their manners, customs 
and habits ; but to sit by one's own fireside at 
home, and have the oriental life pictured to 
them in all its various phases, was interesting 
indeed; and to see those daughters, young 
misses, lay off for a time the American and 
don the Oriental costume, and sing those 
Turkish hymns, or their own hymns in the 
Turkish language, one might well fancy him- 
self in Constantinople, Trebizond, or along the 
Black Sea. I understand that Mr. Crane has 
been the recipient of quite a fortune since he 
left Carbondale, and is now living in the city 
of Morristown, New Jersey, the place rendered 
historical by the memories of the Revolution. 

Since writing the above, we learn by the 
papers that Mr. Crane has again received a call 
from the American Board of Foreign Missions 
to revisit those eastern climes as a missionary, 
and, having accepted the call, he sailed on the 
8th of April, 1874; thus leaving behind him 
the land of his nativity, his interesting family, 
friends, and all that is dear to him here, for the 
good of those in foreign lands. He is now 
upon the broad Atlantic, and his language no 
doubt is, Farewell, America ! hail, Oriental 
Turkey! 



64 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BENJAMIN FINCH. 

Or, as he is known, Ben Finch. If he was 
not one of the early settlers of Carbondale, he 
was an early traveller or wanderer up and down 
these streets, known of all people. I have 
always understood that he was born in Luzerne 
county, and commenced his career in or about 
Abington, where he learned the joiner's trade, 
and also became a member of Elder Miller's 
church ; but for some indiscretion, either real 
or imaginary, he was excommunicated and 
turned out into the world — a wanderer ; and 
it has always been said that his being turned 
out of the church was the cause of his halluci- 
nation. Be that as it may, it seemed the sub- 
ject on which his anger could be most easily 
aroused would be to introduce the subject of 
Elder Miller. When we first knew him, some 
forty years since, he was capable of doing con- 
siderable labor or business in his line; but 
year after year his mind grew moro weak and 
his dignity more important. He always had a 
very polite and prepossessing way of getting 
along. Although dependent upon friends, he 



65 

never begged. Whenever he called at a house 
or met a friend, the first word he would utter 
would be, I was going to such a place, where I 
expect to get a few millions, and thought I 
would just call and take dinner with you, or 
stay over night, as the case might be. Or he 
would say to a friend, " Couldn't you let me 
have a few thousands for a few days until 1 
get my draft from England ? then I can let 
you have a thousand or two as well as not." 
And there were a great many who would give 
him some worthless bills, or it might be the 
card of some firm, having the impress of a 
bank note, which he would take great plea- 
sure in showing, and telling who let him have 
it, and that they were going to let him have 
a large amount soon. At one time, travelling 
alone in Wayne county, he was overtaken by 
a teamster, and got on his wagon to ride with 
him. As they rode along, Ben showed the 
farmer his money, and he being of an avari- 
cious disposition, his mouth watered for some 
of the shekels. So when they got to the end 
of their journey, three or four miles, Ben said, 
*' How much shall I pay you for my ride 1 " 

" Well," said the farmer, " I guess about one 
dollar." " Here it is," said Ben, handing him 
a V, and the farmer gave him back four dollars 



66 

in good money in change. In a day or two 
the farmer had a little inkling that he had 
actually paid Ben four dollars for his company 
and riding with him, and started off to find 
him. After a day or two's search, he came 
upon the identical Ben, when he said to him, 
" That bill you gave me was a counterfeit — not 
worth a cent." Ben said, with an air of tri- 
umph, " Well, wan't that a wipe on you! '* So 
it took some eight or ten bushels of oats to re- 
plenish his exchequer again. But his most 
predominant passions were for money and the 
love of the beautiful. It was a common saying 
that money and women were his greatest pas- 
sions. But he was a great lover of a beautiful 
discourse, and whenever he heard of any great 
doings he was always on hand, and would drink 
in every word that was spoken ; always getting 
near the stand or pulpit where he could face 
the audience and the audience face him, and 
would be constantly on the qui mve in giving 
his assent to each and every parenthesis by 
motions and nods of the head. At one time, 
in Carbondale, while the Rev. Mr. Gorham 
was preaching one of his sensational sermons, 
Ben was carried clear away, and gave evidence 
of his approval by signs and gestures, until at 
a certain point in his discourse Mr. Gorham, 



67 

being a splendid singer, sang out, " The old 
ship Zion is passing by, is passing by," when 
Ben spoke out so as to be heard by the whole 
audience, '* Yes ; jump aboard ! jump aboard ! " 
But Ben was a man of no small natural ability. 
He always scorned to stoop to anything low or 
mean. His aims were high. The first knowl- 
edge we ever had of him was when he was 
about thirty-two years old. He is now seventy. 
He was then bent upon going to England to 
marry the then young Queen Victoria. About 
that time, happening in the Mansion House bar- 
room one evening, Sheriff Palmer came to me 
and asked me if I wanted to see a little fun. 
Yes ; always on hand for that. He led me 
through the hall into the reading room, where 
were ten or a dozen fun-loving men, who had 
gotten Solomon Arnold fixed and puffed up 
with false whiskers, representing him as Col. 
Johnson from Syracuse, and young Dudley, of 
Montrose, a stage driver of rather delicate ap- 
pearance, dressed up in a lady's costume, bon- 
net and all ; also, a violin player. The dance 
commenced. All had gentlemen partners but 
Ben. He had the pleasure of dancing with 
the beautiful Miss Johnson, of Syracuse. After 
the dance had been gone through with, the 
would-be Col. Johnson said in a very round, 



68 

masculine voice, "Mr Finch, my daughter has 
often heard of your fame, and as she has a 
dowry of some few millions, we have come 
here expecting to see my daughter and you 
joined in the holy bonds of matrimony." " Well^ 
well,^^ said Ben, with fluttering he art, " we'll 
see about it in the morning." And then the 
hat was passed around and a few flips thrown 
in for the fiddler, and then another dance ; 
after which Col. Johnson said, " Mr. Finch, 
my business is very urgent and I must leave 
in the morning. It is necessary that the nup- 
tials should be solemnized this evening ; " and 
then the time passed on until "the wee sma 
hours," when the happy couple were sent into 
the hall to talk over matters. So, after the 
party had given full vent to their mirthfulness, 
they went out to look for the happy couple. 
Dudley had gone to bed and Finch was in no 
humor for getting married. Had Benjamin 
been in some good society, away from these 
untoward influences, aijd his mind directed in 
the right channel, he might have been a useful 
man and an ornament to society. 



69 
CHAPTER XIV. 

DANIEL COLE AND THE FLOOD IN FALL BROOK. 

When we became acquainted with the hero 
of this sketch we took him to be an Eastern 
Magi, learned in all the wisdom of the Egypt- 
ians. He lived in the mountain gorge, about 
a mile and a half from Carbondale, at the junc- 
tion of two roads and a rivulet, which goes by 
the name of Fall Brook. It would seem that 
Nature never designed it for any other use 
than the little rivulet ; so completely is it shut 
in by mountains that the sun only shines iu 
there a couple of hours in the day. At the 
junction of these two roads, beside the little 
stream, stood his domicile, where he was ever 
ready to extend his kindness to any one that 
happened that way. As a physician he was 
quite an expert, never using but one kind of 
medicine, and that was soda, so that at the 
time of the black fever he was titled with the 
name of Soda Cole. His motto was, " If the 
Lord wills ye live, ye live, and if the Lord 
wills ye die, ye die ; there's no use of too much 
medicine." But he never charged anything 
for his services. At one time a good sized six 



70 

footer of a livery man got caught out and 
called there to borrow a coat. '* Yes, Daniel," 
said the good wife, "let the gentleman have 
your best coat." He put the coat on, being 
told by Daniel that it was the wedding coat, 
and that he had had it for twenty-five years. 
The sleeves came a little below his elbows, and 
the swallow tail came down so that he did not 
have to pull it away when he sat down. Daniel 
was always obliging, and divided his time be- 
tween tending the toll gate, telling fortunes 
and keeping sheep. For twenty-five cents he 
would have such a rush of mind that he would 
gives his customers several dollars^ worth of 
knowledge, besides information enough to last 
them their lifetime. Here he plied his voca- 
tion until a sad catastrophe occurred. One of 
the agents of the Delaware and Hudson Com- 
pany proposed to build a dam for a large reser- 
voir, ostensibly for the company's use, but in 
reality for the benefit of his own mill, a little 
distance below. After it had been built some 
years, the stone dam, twenty feet high, con- 
taining a reservoir covering some thirty or 
forty acres, was observed to be bulging out 
somewhat. But what was everybody's busi- 
ness was nobody's until about the 1st of April, 
at about four o'clock in the morning, the dam 



71 

burst, and away went that large body of water 
with a tremendous sweep, taking in its course 
saw mills, bridges, buildings, lumber, etc. 

But the grandest scene of all must have 
been at the Falls. Here the stream passes 
through a narrow gorge, and has a precipitous 
fall of from eighty to one hundred feet. Over 
these falls were swept no less than three saw 
mills, more than half a dozen bridges, together 
with buildings, saw logs, lumber, trees, etc. 
The scene must have been one of grandeur. 
If there was no beauty to elevate, there was a 
grandeur to survey. The young Niagara 
rushed on in its power and pride with its ac- 
cumulated freight, gaining new force by sweep- 
ing away every barrier in its way, until it 
reached near its entrance into the Lackawanna, 
where a number of miners' houses stood. It 
swept away a number of them, drowning, I 
think, some six or eight persons, and taking 
in its way the White Bridge across the Lacka- 
wanna, just below the city. 

But we go back and take a survey of the 
desolate places, and come to where the first 
bridge was, just above the falls. Here was 
the old rock abutments formed by Nature, of 
which no one can tell. We ask the now little 
river, as it glides along its course, why all this 1 



72 

It seems to say, " It's not my mission to stop 
and babble by the way," and down it leaps into 
the abyss below. We go on a little further to 
where Wedeman's saw mill was only the day 
before in active service, and not a mark or a 
mudsill is left to tell a stranger that a mill was 
ever there. We go on a little further and 
there is a rock weighing some ten or fifteen 
tons, that has been carried as many rods down 
the stream ; it had served as a mile stone for 
all past ages. A little further up and we 
come to where a day or two before stood the 
little hamlet of our friend, the Fortune Teller ; 
but now no trace of civilization is left. 
Whether it was his first or second sight, or his 
dogs, that warned him of his imminent danger, 
we do not know. But how changed the scene ! 
From their warm beds and downy pillows, 
within three or four minutes' time, the father, 
mother and children were scratching up the 
mountains steep, amid rocks and snow, with 
just what they could clutch in their hands or 
under their arms, clinging to the bushes, just 
in time to see their house, and all the results 
of labor and care of years, swept out of sight. 
On seeing the lives of all the family saved, the 
good wife gave expressions of thankfulness to 



73 

that Being to whom she felt they owed their 
lives, and of which it is said — 

'* The moon shines full at His command, 
And all the stars obey." 

Upon this the unthankful Daniel said, in 
not very evangelical language, " You needn't 
thank Him, for you'd all been in those un- 
pleasant regions before now if it hadn't been 
for me." iVfter travelling about half a mile 
the family came to the house of a neighbor in 
their dishevelled state and were kindly cared 
for. 

The dam, with its breach, still stands there, 
a monument of the folly of man. A temperance 
orator once said : " The little drop says, ' It 
is not in me ;' the little rivulet says, * Surely I 
can do no harm,' but go stop if you can the 
rushing Niagara, as it bears its waters to the 
mighty ocean." The people had to suffer the 
inconvenience, but the company had to shoulder 
the loss. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE LATE KEY. E. L. BAILEY. 

We know that in a sketch of Mr. Bailey's 
life in Carbondale no words of ours would be 
of any avail. Had we a sapphire pen, and 
could write in rainbo^v lines, or spread his use- 
ful life like pearls upon the golden line of 
thought, it would avail nothing so long as his 
memory is so deeply enshrined in the hearts 
of his people. We know that his whole life 
is but a commentary of household words. 
Ever social, ever genial, ever felicitous, he 
always drew friends around him and endeared 
himself to all who knew him. His public ad- 
ministrations were no more to be admired than 
his daily life and social qualities. One spe- 
cialty of his life and office was that of uniting 
people in the sacred bonds of matrimony. 
However rough and stormy the after life 
might be, parties could always look back to 
one pleasant hour as that of golden memory. 
As a son of the Emerald Isle once said when 
some little infelicity occurred and his better 
half cursed the hour that they were made man 



7^ 

and wife—** Dear wife, that's now too very 
bad ; it's the only happy hour we ever had." 

Being situated as we were in life, it was no 
uncommon thing for us to be called on for 
livery to attend weddings, and our advice as 
to whom and where to go and get married, 
and it was with pleasure that we recommended 
the parties to get Mr. Bailey to perform the 
ceremony when he was iu the city. But we 
hardly knew which most to admire, Mr. Crane 
or Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bailey was in Harrisburg 
two years or so as chaplain in the Legislature, 
and then very often Mr. Crane's services were 
very happily called into requisition, not that 
we loved Caesar most or Roman more. The 
Baptists were without a pastor for a number 
of years, until Mr. Bailey came there, a young 
man fresh from his preparatory studies, and 
labored assiduously, not only iu building a 
very convenient and comfortable church edifice 
and seeing it paid for, but gathered around 
him a respectable congregation, and labored 
with them. He not only, like Paul, planted 
the church, but, like Apollos, stayed there and 
watered it most of the time until the angel 
Death said unto him, " Come up higher." 
No doubt such was his love for his church and 
people that in the language of one ojf old be 



76 

said, '*I am with you till the world shall 
end." His language no doubt now is — 

" I have not gone to some foreign shore, 
Lo ! I am with you evermore." 

^ He left us when his manly heart 

With earnest hope was beating high ; 
Too soon it seemed for us to part. 
Too soon, alas, for him to die. 

We gaze into unmeasured space. 

And lift our tearful e^es above, 
To catch one glimmering of his face, 

Or one light whisper of his love. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

HON. G. W. PALMER. 

We clip the following from Forney* s Press : 
Hon. Gideon Wilmer Palmer was born in 
Hopington, Rhode Island, April 18th, 18 IS; 
educated there at the age of eighteen; in 1836, 
emigrated to Pennsylvania, and settled at 
Clifford, Susquehanna county; taught school 
one session and then engaged in agriculture. 
From there he went to Carbondale, Luzerne 
county, in 1815, and while there was elected 
constable, and served three years. In 1850 he 



77 

was elected justice of the peace, and served 
till the autumn of that year, when he was 
elected sheriff of Luzerne county. In 1854 
he was elected to the lower house of the Leg- 
islature, always elected by the Republicans, 
overcoming the great Democrat majority of 
3,000. Two years during the war he was 
paymaster in the army. In 1872 he sup- 
ported Horace Greeley for President, and was 
elected by the liberal Republicans and Demo- 
crats to the Constitutional Conv(^tion. He 
and ex-governor Andrew G. Cur tin, and T. 
H. B. Patterson, of Pittsburg, were the only 
liberal Republicans in the Convention. Mr. 
Palmer is the father of his colleague, the Hon. 
Henry W. Palmer, who is a Republican still 
of the olden school, and one of the most 
prominent of the rising men of the State of 
the present day. Mr. G. W. Palmer, the 
father, is on the Committee on Militia and on 
Schedule, is one of the most punctual in his 
attendance, and is always awake to the best 
interests of the State. He is a farmer and 
miller and has amassed an elegant competency. 
He . takes high rank as an independent and 
upright delegate, measures 5 feet 11, weighs 
180 pounds, has brown hair, full beard, no 
moustache, a good head, fine front face and 



^8 

pi'ofile, and gentlemanly appearance. He nbW 
besides at Humphreysville, Luzerne county, 
Pennsylvania. He has, among other marks of 
distinction, never been beateti for any office 
fot which he has ever beeti named, and is oil 
the rising tide. 



CHAPTER XVn. 

GEORGE A. WHITING. 

Although it is a number of years sinc^ his 
useful and valuable life has closed^ yet his 
memory is enshrined in the hearts of his ntr- 
merous friends and acquaintances. He was 
ever kind, ever generous. He spent the most 
of his life as agent of the Delaware and Hud- 
soil Company, in the purchase and manage- 
ment of the horse department, overseeing the 
teaming, etc. His life was that every day 
round of business that we have but little to 
record. As an exemplification of his generosity 
we will relate a little circumstance. Falling 
in with the Rev. Mr. Reynolds, the Episcopal 
clergyman from Carbondale, at Tom Clark's 
hotel in Way mart, he called for a dinner for 
the twain. Mr. Clark, knowing them to be 



79 

men of note and corporbsity enough to do 
justice to any dinner, had a very large, fine 
turkey cooked, with all the accompaniments 
that th6 most fastidious could desire. The 
dinner thus prepared, the table was set ex- 
pressly for the two. They both felt that it was 
a feast of reason, if not a flow of soul, so that 
soon the spacious turkey disappeared like the 
morning dew. When the turkey was finished 
the Rev. gentleman looked up and said : "Well, 
Mir. Whiting, one turkey is a little too much 
for (me man, but liot quite enough for tw6." 
Mr. R. was an Englishman, and a very popular 
preacher, but as to American customs he was 
somewhat peculiar. He was very fond of read- 
ing the latest iievVs, and as soon as Love & 
Gillespie received their New York paper he 
Tised to send in for it ; but it was not long be- 
fore they sent him one that was a little stale. 
He was also very fond of bathing. The young 
men at the machine shop 'had fixed up a bath 
house, where they could let in a flood of water 
at the top. This was his place of resort. The 
youngsters, like other young folks, feeling a little 
mischievous, went a little way up the stream, 
where there was a wintergreen distillery, and 
shoved into the stream a quantity of vines 
which had been distilled, and floated them down 



80 

to the bath house, where they were moored on 
the bank until the Eev. gentleman came for his 
bath; then they were shoved into the water, 
and when the gate was hoisted, down went the 
vines which only a few days before enclosed 
the real essence, but now enclosed the popular 
divine of the ApostoHc succession. But it 
wasn't always that young America got the best 
of him. As was customary the good people 
made him a donation party, and one prominent 
firm in the mercantile business had a very poor 
lot of tea which they could not sell, and one of 
the firm wishing to be generous, put up several 
pounds of the tea and sent it in. In a day or 
two the minister discovering that the tea was 
not genuine, called on the firm, and expressing 
his ideas of its fine flavor, inquired the price of 
such tea. The merchant replied that it was 
worth one dollar per pound. '' Well," said he, 
" we have had considerable tea sent in, and I 
would like to exchange it for other groceries." 
The merchant could do no better than to pay 
him one dollar per pound for the tea which they 
had been selling for three or four shillings per 
pound. The last we heard of him he was in 
California. Miss Watt, of your city, being 
there, heard that a distinguished preacher was 
to speak to the people that day, and when he 



81 

entered the desk, lo and behold it was the Rev. 
Mr. Reynolds, who was preaching in Carbon- 
dale when she left ! 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

JESSE WILLIAMS. 

Jesse Williams was a first rate citizen and 
merchant, one of whom to know was to respect ; 
kind and generous to everybody, and rather 
leaning to universalism. Again and again did 
his friends urge it upon him to come into 
the Methodist Church, where he had a host of 
friends, but he chose to follow in the footsteps 
of Murray, Ballon, Chapin and others, rather 
than come in with the followers of Weslev, 
Whitfield, &c., and join in those cheerful 
melodies : 

" This is the way I long have sought, 
And mourned because I found it not." 

At that time there was an old colored gentle- 
man by the name of Samuel Wright. Although 
a real Methodist, " dyed in the wool," he 
seldom attended church, unless there was a 

moving of the waters, and then you would see 

4* 



hirn conistantly on the course. He was pbs* 
sessed of a pair of lungs that would beat any- 
thing that was ever heard for half a mile around. 
At the time of one of these seasons of rejoicing, 
some of the friends got around Brother Jesse 
and persuaded him to go into one of their 
meetings. The old darkey wrestled in behalf 
of our good friend Jesse as man never wrestled 
before. It really seemed as though the 
heavens and the earth were coming together. 
On leaving the church some of the brethren 
ventured to ask Jesse what he thought of the 
meeting. He said it was all well enough for 
aught he knew, but thought it rather queer for 
them to ask a gentleman to go to their meeting, 
and then get a nigger to pray for him. After 
leaving Carbondale, many years ago, he went 
with his family to Pittstoh, where he engaged 
in the foundry business until his health 
failed him, when he quietly passed over 
to the other shore — not only in the full 
belief, but in the full knowledge of the spiritual 
philosophy — where he awaits our coming, and 
will be always ready to not only beckon us 
over, but, like a white- winged angel, will wel- 
come us over to those blissful realms where 
the weary are forever at rest. 

To speak of his brother Joseph, who moved 



8S 

to Wilkes-Bairte, where he served as justice of 
the peace, and where he died, would be but 
a repetition of the same good man. 



CHAPtER XIX. 

Michael b. white. 

Many years ago we knew M. B. White, of 
the firm of Bilger & White, merchants, on 
lower Main street^ and a very social and ac- 
compUshed gentleman he was. After suffer- 
ing from the ravages of fire, wherein they lost 
heavily, Mr. White was chosen marshal, 
jailor, etc., successor to his late partner, S. E. 
Bilger, \Vhich office he filled very acceptably for 
some years. After Mr. Bronson had been 
burnt out two or three times, he bought the 
site on the corner where the Keystone Hotel 
now stands, and soon commenced excavating 
for a new cellar. Being called away for a short 
time, he returned to find himself in the same 
predicament th^t Samson did when Delilah had 
shaved off his locks, his strength was gone. 
Michael had often been called on for his taxes, 
bat te fused to pay them on account of the 



84 

city's indebtedness to him for services, boarding 
prisoners, etc., but Martin coming along just at 
that time, clothed with authority from the chief 
councils in the shape of a collector's warrant, 
took up the whip and drove off the oxen. The 
scene that followed may be better imagined 
than described. To duplicate the language 
on that occasion would be hardly modest, not 
to say irreverent. A man coming along dis- 
covered the atmosphere looking very blue, and 
on asking the cause, some one replied that 
Michael had been indulging in a little pro- 
fanity, but on seeing how unequal he was to the 
occasion he very quietly gave it up. However, 
he went on and built his hotel and run it very 
successfully for a number of years, when he was 
again burnt out with all his surrounding build- 
ings and his household goods. ' He then sold 
out his site and removed to Canada, where, we 
understand, he run a hotel for awhile, but not 
liking so much of Frenchdom, soon returned to 
the city of his former years, having followed 
while in Canada in the footsteps of good old 
King Solomon when he sent his ships to Tarsus 
to be freighted back with apes and peacocks. 
While on a tour of travel we met a gentleman 
who had seen him in one of the northern 
counties vihile on his way back to Carbondale, 



85 

who thus describes him : He had a good horse 
and wagon, with eight dogs, and more curiosi- 
ties than Solomon ever thought of. 

But Michael, getting back to Carbondale, and 
feeling quite at home, like the far seeing Colum- 
bus, saw the glory that was soon to be revealed 
in Carbondale by the rise of property in the 
city, bought one of the most eligible sites, 
which he has caused to bud and blossom like 
the rose. 



CHAPTER XX. 

MESSES. BiiONSON. 

When we first came to Carbondale, forty 
years since, we found our ever respected friends, 
B. K. and his son, Wm. W. Bronson. They 
were then, as now, and ever have been, en- 
gaged in buying, fitting up and selling horses, 
and lived then in the lower part of the city. 
They soon went to Philadelphia, and for some 
years, I think, were engaged in keeping a hotel 
there. But they returned to Carbondale again, 
William bringing with him his young wife, 
and entered upon the duties of hotel keeping, 
and living in the Railroad Hotel, where the 



8B 

Keystone now is kfept In thfe gf^at fif^, Se^ 
tember 15th, 1850, they were entirely burned 
out, but not discouraged. They soon erected 
a temporary board house for the winter, where 
they entertained travellers when they could do 
no better. We have heard it remarked by so- 
journers, that they spent some of their happiest 
nights there. In the spring they built another 
commodious hotel, and many will remember 
the kind and obliging John Edwards, the bar 
tender and clerk, whose untimely death oc- 
curred at Binghamton some four or five years 
since by suicide. The new hotel was burned 
five years subsequent to the first, when he sold 
the site to M. B. AVhite. After having spent 
the most of his useful and active life as a hotel 
keeper, stage proprietor, mail contractor, etc., 
he retired with a verv handsome income. 
Probably Mr. Bronson would not have retired 
to private life so soon had it not been for sortie 
little circumstances of infelicity. There was 
^ farmer living up in Herrick by the name of 
Je'rry Kounds, who often came to Carbondale 
and stopped with Mr. Bronson, and generally 
brought something to market. -We can no 
better describe Uncle Jerry, only like the 
Dutchman was, when he says, "I bees him*so 
wide as I do high, so if he falls over he will 



8t 

be so higher as when he stands up." It was 
so with Uncle Jerry. His circumference was 
ihore than his altitude. One day he called on 
Mr. Bronson and sold him a quarter of lamb, 
Mr. Bronson paying him fifty cents, less twenty- 
five for his dinner. The quarter was cooked, 
and Uncle Jerry sat down and dispatched the 
whole quarter with the accompanying condi- 
ment, when Mr. Bronson began to think that 
hotel keeping was not so profitable. At an- 
other time in staging, he sent his stage around 
for a passenger, and when the stage came 
around, there sat a buxom lady on the back 
seat as dark as ebony. Mr. B. requested her 
to take another seat, as he had some of the 
^Ute to ride in the stage that morning, but no 
go. After some words, the lady informed Mr. 
B. that she would have him understand that 
white folks were just as good as colored ones, 
if they only behaved as well. Although Mr. 
Bronson, Sr., is far along in his four score 
years, it seems but a few short years since we 
used to see him on his famous trotter, on the 
streets, with his white hair straight behind, 
and at every few rods he would give that well 
known signal, " Ye, yep !" while his horse was 
bn that well known gait, 2.40. But alas ! we 
shall see him ride so no more. 



88 

Perhaps our readers of these sketches would 
feel that there was a missing link did we not 
mention Black Ell, as he was called — Ell Smith 
— who so long and so faithfully served as host- 
ler at the Railroad Hotel, both before and after 
Mr. Bronson was proprietor. Ever faithful, 
ever trusty, kind and obliging to all the numer- 
ous visitors, he was respected by all. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SEASON AND CAPT. DANIEL BACON. 

Two months of the pres9nt year have come 
and gone, and we are already treading upon 
the third month. The first month of spring, 
when nature, as if already aware of the impor- 
tance of the season, is manifesting itself in the 
bud preparatory to the blossom, when she shall 
again deck herself in her wedding garment or 
holiday attire, and already has the sugar 
maple yielded up its delicious fruitage. In the 
world of mankind how many are -there laying 
plans for the future ! The man of avarice is 
already laying plans for his future prosperity, 
whereby he may increase his coffers, while 



89 

those of wealth and leisure are beginning to 
look around to see where they can best shine 
in their most resplendent glory. The denizens 
of the hot southern cities, New Orleans, 
Natchez, Richmond, Washington, etc., long 
to loiter in the cooling shades and arcadian 
grovps of Saratoga, and drink of the carbonic 
waters, or saunter about Congress Hall, or the 
Grand Union, with its costly equipages and 
its 300 waiters, whose hands are ever open for 
a recompense. And then there is another 
class of fast men, with their fast horses, fine 
carriages and equipages, and their Flora 
McFlimsies, anxious for the time to come 
when the multitude shall assemble at Long 
Branch, to frolic in the rolling surf or on the 
sandy beach the fore part of the day, dress, 
read novels and dine in the afternoon, saunter 
about until six o'clock, and then to see one of 
the finest boulevards two miles in length, and 
broad enough for four carriages abreast, 
straight as a line, filled to repletion with the 
grandest display of equipages one can imagine. 
Then there is Newport, another fashionable 
watering place on the eastern side of Rhode 
Island, which is more cosmopolitan. There 
many people" have their own homesteads and 
equipages, and there fam'ilies reside through 



90 

the summer iand close thetn through the 
winter. Others hire cottages there just for 
the summer. As for their amusement and 
Newport life, we can no better describe it than, 
in the language of another. 

" The scene on the beach, however, rarely 
we&ries. BetVveen the bathing houses aiid the 
white lines of breakers, what a crash of phae- 
tons, dog-carts, clarences, and landaus, and 
what a motley crew of bare-footed beings 
patter up and down the hard sand, or plunge 
in the sea bevond! You know the scene; 
there is the fat man with spectacles and a gray 
moustache, who looked portly, but dignified, 
in his carriage, now, with a flapping hat tied 
over his ears, and a tightly clinging, thin bath- 
ing dress, looks like a disgraceful fisherman on 
^a spree. Then trips gaily past him the woman 
with the hair, whose carefully crimped golden 
waves float to her knees, who presently comes 
out with stringy locks looking very doubtful 
as to whether the show paid for the work of 
reconstructing that head anew. Near by is the 
timid woman, who shrieks when a very mild 
wave breaks below her knees, and the belle 
whose attractions are in her bath house, but 
who still thinks herself lovely, and comes 
languidly along with the kangaroo droop, 



91 

while nbw and then appears tli^t fare avis that 
fetill looks like a human being, in spite of wet 
tunic and trousers. Springfield contributes at 
least one graceful girl swimmer, and the hand- 
somest head that rises above the spray is the 
Brightown poet's. One athletic figure emerges, 
talks awhile with some carriage friends, takes 
a flask from his bathing shirt pocket, imbibes 
freely and returns for another dip, fortified ; and 
so the merry scene continues, till verging on 1 
o'clockj the last bathers in dresses hurry their 
toilets and depart in haste, and up goes the red 
flag on the office to say to the masculine gen- 
der that they can now plunge, untrammelled 
by gingham, flannel, or bed-tick apparel. 
Latier in the day, driving on the avenue, you 
see the same goodly company, and realize anew 
that fine feathers make fine birds. Indeed Hig- 
ginson says : ' It takes two years to learn to 
drive on the iavenue,' and instructs us to leaii 
back in total indifference to surrounding things 
putting a remote superciliousness into our 
Countenance, highly suggestive of gout and 
ancestry, and never looking improperly intelli- 
gent, if we would have the passing crowd 
(their own faces marked by the ' renunciation 
of all human joy ') suppose we are ' to the 
manor born.' Disregarding his advice, we 



92 

proceed to wonder who the people are that 
sport such huge calves and so many buttons 
behind and before, and say, with poverty's 
acrid spirit, the crabbed dean's consoling 
words, ' It is plain to see what the Lord thinks 
of money by the folks he gives it to ! ' " 

While at these three places assemble the 
rich, the gay and the proud, there are hundreds 
of other places where the fashionables of the 
cities congregate to be freed from the annoy- 
ances of city life, to enjoy the sports of fishing, 
hunting, &c., and breathe the pure air of the 
rural districts, and revel in the luxuries of 
nature — some of which we hope to be able to 
give some account of the coming summer. 
But were this earth one great pleasure ground, 
then might we bask in the sunshine of pros- 
perity, but scarcely do we take up a paper but 
we read of accidents, disease, murder and 
death. But we must take the world as it is, 
knowing that God governs it, and our business 
here is to make it better if we can. While 
spring may linger in the lap of summer we 
hope to pick up a few crumbs of items of 
interest here and there for the readers of the 
Advance to enjoy or endure, until we shall go 
forth to engage in new scenes wherewith to 



93 

interest, feeling that a living present is far 
better than a dead past. 

CAPTAIN DANIEL BACON. 

In looking over the columns of the Advance 
from time to time, we are glad to notice the 
prosperity of Gibsonburg. It carries us back 
to the time of the first settlement of that inter- 
esting burgh, when Captain Daniel Bacon came 
in there and cut away the laurels and hemlocks, 
and made the first opening some forty-five 
years ago, an account of which we will reserve 
for another chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



CAPT. DANIEL BACON. 



Although not exactly a citizen of Carbon- 
dale, yet he was nearly identified in all the re- 
lations of interest in its early settlement, having 
been one of the early pioneers of the Lacka« 
wanna Valley, coming there when it was one 
unbroken wilderness, and settled four miles be- 
low, in the township of Blakely, where the 
flourishing village of Jermyn now is. When 



he first gave the name he hesitated as to calU 
ing it Baconville or Hamburg, they -being syn- 
onymous terms; but the Copt. Daniel Bacon 
were prominent and noble words on his es- 
cutcheon, and, therefore, he settled down on 
the name so long known as Baconville^ after-^ 
wards changed to Gibson burg, but of late so 
justly named Jcrmyn. When he first went 
there, there was one unbroken wilderness of 
laurels and hemlocks, and a forest of pine tim*? 
ber, that would seem almost to defy the puny 
hand of man to ever cause a scarcity of; and 
there are at present thousands of pine stumps 
still left as so many witnesses of the past. Yet, 
with his determined zeal and ambition, he 
cleared away the rubbish and built him a tene- 
ment wherein to live and board his hands while 
he built a dam across the Lackawanna river 
and a saw mill at each end, and in a very few 
months from an entire wilderness it became 
one of the most lively places in northern Penn- 
sylvania, with something like a score of men, 
some cutting logs in the woods, and half as 
many teams hauling logs and lumber to the 
railroad, where it was loaded on -the cars, and 
quite a force in the mills running them night 
and day. Some of the lumber was unloaded 
at Honesdale, and run down the LackaiWaxea 



to the Delaware, and then rafted to Philadel- 
phia; while some was taken directly to New 
Yoik. In our mind's eye we can now see him 
on his roan horse, as we used to, that never 
broke his gallop from his mills to town, or from 
town to the mills ; and then among his worl^r 
men, ever present in a short space t f time. 

At that time lumber was a specialty. Iri 
the valley there were Capt. Bacon's two mills 
and pne called the Great Western, where the 
Moosic Powder Mills are ; another, half a mile 
below, owned by Benjamin <& Van Bergen y 
another at Mt. Vernon; another at Decker's 
Bridge; another at Peckville ; and another at 
Olyphant, owned by Mr. Barber. These mills 
were all employed in the cutting of pine tim- 
ber, at that time, and it was estimated that 
there was an average of 30,000 feet of pine 
lumber drawn over the Carbondale and Blakely 
tu;^Bpike every day in the year. But Capt. 
B^cou's was the nearest^ except the Meredith 
millj and did much more than ^ny other two 
on the stream. The land of the upper end of 
the Qity was one dense lumber yard from Foun- 
dry street up to the railroad bridge, sending 
off a car load every hour. But alas for all hu-r 
man greatness! When in the zenith of his 
gljory h.e went to New York, wbere be started 



96 

a retail sale lumber yard; but through the 
treachery of some would-be friends his trade 
proved unsuccessful, and he soon returned to 
Archbald, where he owned land on which the 
village is built, which he and Doctor Farnham 
sold in village lots to great advantage. But 
he was no longer Captain Daniel Bacon, but 
said, " I'm now Pa Bacon^ 

Through all his useful and active life we 
never knew him to have a quarrel with any 
one, cr a suit at law. He was always concilia- 
tory, kind, and watchful for the good of others. 
Although he never joined the Methodist Church, 
yet he was a good exhorter, and many will re- 
member the good old man walking up to the 
altar at the close of the service, and turning to 
the people how the tears would roll down his 
cheeks while he exhorted them to kindness 
and brotherly love. But as his health failed 
him, such was the relation of mind and matter, 
that his mind and body weakened down to- 
gether, until we saw the last of an honest man, 
all that was mortal of the noblest work of God, 
lowered down into the narrow house, near the 
old Baptist Church in Blakely, and as his last 
mortal remains were forever hidden from our 
sight, we thought could those closed eyes again 
be opened, and those parched lips be again re- 



97 

animated, from what we know of him, the im- 
mortal would triumphantly exclaim : 

My faith fears nothing ; sink ye hills, 

And all ye mountains nod ; 
Faith all my soul with transport fills — 

I firmly trust in God. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 



CHURCH RECORDS. 



The Ministers of the Presbyterian Church 
of Carbondale, as near as we could get them, 
were ; 

Rev. Jonathan Noble, 1829; Rev. T. S. 
Conklin, 1833; Rev. Mr. Fuller, 1835; Rev. 
J. R. Mosier, 1835; Rev. R. E. Taylor, 1840; 
Rev. Mr. Allen, 1840; Rev. Mr. Willis, 1847; 
Rev. Mr. Ward, 1857; Rev. Oliver Crane, 
1864; Rev. E. D. Bryan, 1870. 

The Ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church of Carbondale were : 

Rev. Mr. Cushman, Rev. A. J. Crandall, 
Rev. Wm. Ready, Rev. Mr. Benham, Rev. H. 
E. Luther, Rev. Mr. Cook, Rev. Mr. Warden, 
Rev. Mr. Bronson, Rev. B. W. Gorham, Rev. 
H. R. Clark, Rev. W. W. Wyatt, Rev. H. B. 



98 

Brownscomb, Rev. D. T. Walker, Rev. G. M. 
Blakesley, Rev. A. Barker, Rev. D. Shepherd, 
Rev. J. M. Snyder, Rev. G. M. Peck, Rev. I. 
T. Walker, Rev. J. O. Woodruff, Rev. A. Grifl 
fin. 

The Ministers of the Berean Baptist Church 
of Carbondale, from March, 1848, to Septem- 
ber, 1874, were: 

Rev. David E. Bowen, Rev. Henry Curliss, 
Rev. Charles Griffin, Rev. Frederick Glauville, 
Rev. Edward L. Baily, Rev. J. B. Tombes, Rev. 
E. L. Baily, recalled, and died in a few weeks 
after resuming the pastorate; Rev. John J. 
Owen, who also died during his pastorate; 
Rev. John Emory Gault, Rev. W. B. Grow. 

The Ministers of the Trinity Church of Car 
bondale were : 

Rev. Samuel Marks, now of Huron Ohio; 
Rev. Mr. McKim, Rev. John Reynolds, Rev. 
A. Beaty, Rev. Thomas Randall, Rev. J. A. 
Stone, Rev. Thomas Drumme, Rev. B. H. Ab- 
bott, Rev. Edward Dezeny, Rev. J. M. A. 
Harding, Rev. M. L. Kern, Rev. R. B. Peets. 

For this list we are indebted to^Miss H. E. 
Dart, who has our thanks. 



99 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

PUBLIC OFFICERS. 

The officers of the Mayor's Court of Carbon- 
dale, from its first establishment to 1874, were : 

Mayors: — James Archibald, 1851; Edward 
Jifkins, 1855; Gideon Frothingham, 1856; 
John M. Poor, 1857; Canfield Harrison, 1861; 
Anthony Grady, 1862; Wm. Brenan, 1865; J. 
M. Poor, 1866; Thomas Voyle, 1867; Joseph 
B. Van Bergen, 1869; Thomas Voyle, 1873; 
Wm. C. Morrison, 1874. 

Recorders of the Mayor's Court: — William 
Jesiip, 1851; J. W. Conyngham, 1851; H. M. 
Hoyt, 1867; E. L. Dana, 1868; D. W. Lath- 
rope, 1870; Alfred Dart, 1872; I. D. Eichards, 
1873; Alfred Dart, 1874, and re-elected. 

Clerks of the Mayor's Court: — Wm. Brenan, 
1851; Bernard McTigh, 1854; John E. Brown, 
1863; Geo. H. Squire, 1867; M. G. Neary, to 
December, 1875. 

Post Masters: — James W. GofF, William 
Eggle&ton, H. S. Pierce, Jesse Williams, Cal- 
vin Benjamin, C. T. Pierson, Martin Curtis, F. 
M. Crane, H. P. Ensign, Joseph Gilispie, An- 
thony Grada, D. N. N. Lathrope, W. R. Baker, 
Daniel Pendegrast, P. S. Jocelyn. 



100 
CHAPTER XXV. 

PROVIDENCE TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO. 

In January, 1846, the late F. B. Woodward 
began printing a weekly newspaper in Provi- 
dence called the County Mirror and LacJcawan- 
nian. It was the only paper printed between 
Carbondale and Wilkes-Barre. Its editorials 
were outspoken and versatile, and it was printed 
up stairs over an office now occupied by Capt. 
Fish — then known as the Arcade. Charles H. 
Silkman, Esq., kept a law office next door, filled 
with a brood of incipient Blackstone's, whose 
literary efforts betimes made the Mirror more 
spicy and readable at home. These gentlemen, 
the late Dan Eankin with his quick, keen vein 
of humor to carry his point when assailed; the 
phlegmatic D. R. Handall, who relied upon 
bluster to discomfit his adversary; the less 
mercurial D. S. Koon, now of Pittston, and 
the more precise and polished E. S. M. Hill, 
formed the voluntary part of the editorial staff. 
C. R. Gorman and H. HoUister, then reading 
medicine with Dr. Throop at Providence, some 
times diffused their crude notions through its 
columns as did A. B. Dunning, then a clerk in 



101 

the store of Winton & Atwater. While Charles 
H. Silkman, with his fertile, yet merciless pen, 
favored the new county movement and fought 
the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company 
with a savage persistency never equalled by 
any one in the valley before or since. 

Mr. Woodward had formerly printed the 
Mirror at " Carbondale, a little town north of 
Providence," as he styled it, and he came to 
Providence while a majority of its citizens 
were expecting two important events to trans- 
pire ; first, that a new county, to be called 
Lackawanna, would be created out of the 
upper townships, with the county seat at 
Providence; second, that the New York and 
Erie Railroad Company, then knocking at the 
northern border of our State for permission to 
cross it, would, after this was granted by the 
Legislature, build their great road through 
Cobb's Gap, and thus rapidly develop this 
portion of the valley in a manner that would 
enrich everybody. The Delaware and Hudson 
Canal Company had as yet made no progress 
down the Lackawanna farther then Archbald, 
" a village," says this paper, " from the best 
information we can get, of one dwelling, one 
store house and one barn, and, we believe, of 
eight inhabitants." The friends of this last 



102 

named company were largely in the minority 
in the valley, owing to the fact that C. H. 
Silkman, H. W. Nicholson, Dr. Bedford, S. 
Heermons, Wm. Merrifield, Capt. Felts, N. D. 
Green, and hundreds of others in the county, 
were holding meetings every week alternately 
at Cottrell's Hotel, in Providence, Greens', in 
Hyde Park, and at Cannon's, in Blakely, to 
warn the public in their language against " the 
base and detestable intrigues of the Delaware 
and Hudson Canal Company — one whose 
policy is like a bandit in acquiring power and 
influence, and like a tyrant and despot in the 
use of it." The champions of the last named 
company were Nathan Smith, T. Youngs, L. 
S. Watres, D. Sligh, Daniel Bacon, Levi L. 
Lillibridge, Esquire Callender, and a few 
others who labored steadily to neutralize the 
operations of the opposing factions. The pro- 
ceedings of these counter meetings, held in 
Blakely and Providence during 1846-7, would 
fill a volume, and will do so some day. 

These sketches were not intended to brinor 
up reminiscences of one of the mest exciting 
periods in the history of the valley, since the 
expulsion of the savages, a hundred years ago, 
but to exhibit inja sun^s^estive manner the rela- 
tive status of the villages of Providence and 



103 

Harrison (now Scranton), as reflected by the 
Providence Mirror in 1846-7. The first 
named village arrogated to itself such con- 
sideration that the new improvements then 
being made in Harrison, under adverse circum- 
stances, were deemed unworthy of a single 
note. 

The bridge across the Lackawanna had been 
carried away by a freshet, and as there were 
four stores in Providence and but one in Har- 
rison, people did not run down every day, as 
now, for a thimble or a paper of pins. The 
Lackawanna Iron Works, supposed to be hope- 
lessly bankrupt, were of no account to the old 
settlers in their struggles for a single gleam of 
financial sunlight. But three advertisements 
came from Harrison. Alex. N. Jay, now of 
the West, desired to inform the psople of 
Providence and vicinity that he would "put 
Harrison against the country in the way of 
saddle, harness and trunk making." No ad- 
vertisement, however, so fitly and forcibly il- 
lustrates the mutations of twenty-eight years, 
as the following : 



104 

NEW GOODS 
AT THE LACKAWA]Sr:N'A lEOE" WORKS! 

THIS ESTABLISHMENT 

was .commenced now nearly six years ago. At 
that time goods of all descriptions were sold at 
enormous high prices and large profits in the 
valley. We claim the credit of being public 
benefactors by creating competition and redu- 
cing prices generally, and also of building up an 
establishment which has already made a large 
and valuable home market for the produce of 
the farmers, and also benefited them by being 
able to supply them with iron and nails at 
much lower prices than they could heretofore 
be sold in this community. 

Owing to great press of other business 
during the past year, we have not paid that 
attention to our store that w^e desired, or that 
the wants of this community require ; but we 
would now say that we have associated with 
us Mr. J. C. Piatt, who has been largely en- 
gaged in this branch of business for twelve 
years, and whose experience and knowledge of 
the trade is unsurpassed. Mr. Piatt will de- 
vote his whole time to the purchase and sale 
of merchandise — and we would here say, that 
M'e have made such arrangements for the pur- 
chase of our goods as will enable us to sell at 



105 

very low prices, and that we neither fear com- 
petition nor opposition. 

We most respectfully invite all our old 
friends and customers in the valley, and also 
all the citizens living north of the mountain, 
all the v^^ay unto the State of New York, to 
come and trade with us. 

P. S. — We understand that some of our old 
customers have been deterred from coming to 
see us the past season, in consequence of there 
being no bridge at Providence village. We 
are sorry if this be so — don't, however, let 
this " lion in the way " frighten you, but find 
some other place to cross the Lackawanna. 
You will be well paid for making the trial. 
Don't let so small a matter separate you from 
those who have and who will ever do you 
good. 

Very respectfully, 

Scran TONS & Platt. 

December 2, 1846. 

Colonel George W. and Selden T. Scranton, 
and Mr. J. C. Platt then ran the store, while 
the late Joseph H. Scranton was still in 
Augusta, Ga. 

The following letter from Dr. G. Underwood, 
having located himself at Harrison, offers his 
professional services to the public. Office at 



106 

Barton Motts\ where he may always be found, 
except when bushiess calls him from home." 

Dr. Underwood, was the only doctor here, 
yet he abandoned the iron works, because the 
medical business of Harrison would not enable 
him to pay his board. Pie is now in Pittston, 
and is regarded as a good practitioner. 

Dr. Wm. H. Pier puts in an appearance from 
Chenango county, N. Y., and '' tenders his pro- 
fessional services to the citizens of Providence 
and the adjoining towns. Office in Hyde Park, 
next door to the store of John Merrifield." 
He removed his office to Harrison, in February, 
1846. H. HoUister, M. D., advertised his ser- 
vices and drugs; while Dr. Throop, *' desirous of 
avoiding the disagreeable necessity of making 
cost, respectfully requests those indebted to 
him by note or book account for medical ser- 
vices, to call and make such arransrements as 
will avoid the alternative." He also advertises, 
" cheap for good pay, a few dozen of patent 
bedsteads." N. Hanford, M. D., a graduate of 
the University of New York, a very worthy 
man by the way, informed peoplethat his office 
was at the house of R. H, Lackey. He died 
two years later of consumption. James H. 
Kays says that he will exchange " harness for 
coach, or gig for lumber, produce, hides or 
cash." 



107 

Fashionable tailoring thrived for the reason 
that there was found no Knight of the Goose 
between Providence and Pittston Ferry. 
" Robert Higgs, late of Hyde Park," Asa Cor- 
son, "three doors above N. Cottrill's," and 
Henry Reichardt, " at the Assembly rooms of 
A. Jeffry, the emporium of English, French and 
American fashions," all advertised yearly and 
served the public well. The last named gentle- 
man was a character in his way, and by his 
wonderful gifts in weaving a story or a song to 
divert a group, grave or gay, was always wel- 
come to every gathering. Wm. P. Stevens, a 
landholder of some note, who was brutally 
killed by a bullet while riding near Hyde Park, 
in June, 1856, advertised a farm for sale. Ben- 
jamin S. Tripp, who then owned the rich acres 
now known as E. W. Weston's place, adver- 
tised lime at his kiln and " good coal, for one 
dollar per ton, ready pay." Ira Tripp and W. 
W. Winton also advertised coal for sale. W. 
W. Winton " would be glad to employ a miner 
to raise one hundred tons of coal." The tem- 
perance element did not deter E,. H. Lackey 
from inserting the following : '^ A quantity of 
rye whiskey, manufactured in Broome county, 
N. Y,, has been left with the subscriber to be 
sold by wholesale or retail. Providence, May 



108 

9th, 1846." Nor did it interfere with E. S. M. 
Hill, of the Arcade, or Bennett & Weaver, of 
the New York branch store, from offering a 
choice lot of liquors for sale. Bennett & 
Weaver's store stood on the corner now occu- 
pied by the drug store of Charles Hen wood. 
The following notice speaks for itself : 

LOOK HERE ! 

To all my customers at large, 
Whose accounts are now full due : 
Those who pay me I'll discharge, 
And those tliat don't I'll sue ! 
Providence, May 9, 1846. R. Nicholas. 

The author of this stanza was an Englishman, 
and it is claimed that he was the first miner 
ever living or mining coal in Providence town- 
ship. A few years later he was found dead in 
a coal mine. Carter and Crane, two eastern 
artisans, proclaimed through the columns of the 
Mirror the beauty of the edge tools they 
manufactured at Capouse works, while in 
another column Mr. Crane invites " all but 
sheriffs and constables to buy his property, as 
he desires to leave his garden,''^ " Said prop- 
erty can be found any day in Providence." 
Did it ever go away from home I "An old 
brown cow with a crumple horn," disturbing 
the pastures at Mt. Vernon, called for an 
estray notice from L. S. Watres. Major Wm. 



109 ' 

Jackson, Jr., gave the world notice not to trust 
his run-away wife Sabra, upon any account. 
William went to the land of shadows scarce 
twelve months ago. Winton & Atwater 
" wish it to be particularly understood that we 
have lately received an addition to our stock 
in the way of a case of stoid hoots and a few 
pieces of blue calico^ also potash and a few 
violins." Fiddling and dancing were common 
pastime in the village during the autumn and 
winter months. 

J. Marion Alexander, Attorney and Coun- 
sellor at Law, settled in Providence in 1846, 
among five other lawyers. He advertised his 
office " in the cave at Cottril's hotel." He 
was a well qualified lawyer, and made many 
enemies, because he collected debts, instead of 
losing them. He now resides in Kansas. 
Mrs. Lackey announces that she has just re- 
turned from New York with the spring 
and summer fashions. 

VILLAGE LOTS. 

For sale by the subscribers, handsomely 
located in the new village of Archbald, in 
Blakely township, adjacent to the new mines 
of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. 
By application to John P. Farnham, a map of 



110 

the lots may be seen, and terms of sale, wliich 

will be favorable, ascertained. 

Daniel Bacon", 
John P. Farnham. 
Carbondale, September 20, 1845. 

Both of the above named gentlemen are 
sleeping now, but the careful description of the 
location of the new village indicated the minor 
importance of it at this time. 

INTERESTING. 

'^ Notice. — The Trustees of the * Proprietor's 
School Fund ' of Providence, will meet at the 
Hotel of N. D. Green, in Hyde Park, on Mon 
day, the 2d of March, at 10 o'clock. All 
persons having demands or orders against the 
Treasurer of said fund, will present them for 
settlement ; and all knowing themselves in- 
debted to the town, either by note or other- 
wise, for interest on their bonds and mortgages, 
are requested to make payment on or before 
that day. 

By order of the Board of Trustee's. 

Wm. H. Tripp, Sec. 

Hfde Park, Fehmarj/ 12, 1846." 

The above is interesting to those who are 
familiar with the history of this fund. John 



Ill 

H. Spencer, and S. A. Bennet each presented 
their rival claims for patronage in the cabinet 
and painting line. The entire list of letters 
remaining in the Providence P. O., D. S. 
Koon, P. M., Jannary 1st, 1847, was but 34 ; 
in the Hyde Park office were but 12. O. P. 
Clark, who had succeeded Joseph Griffin, 
was postmaster at Hyde Park. No post-office 
as yet in Harrison, nor was there yet a daily 
mail between Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale. 
The ubiquitous schoolmaster was around, as 
the Mirror of September 2d, 1846, says : " A 
letter with this address has reached our post- 
office : 

Lewzerne county Amircky 
To Mr. J. Murphy esq esquare 

in Providence sposin he's thare, Pa. 
and else beside he arn't thare then send it 

where he is sure ye illigant postafficer. 

The year previous, Sylvenas Heermans 
associated himself with Mr. Woodward in con- 
ducting the paper. In the scanty local depart- 
ment of the paper of July 29th, 1846, appears 
the following interesting scrap : 

I. O. O. F. — Capouse Lodge, No. 170, was 
instituted in this place on Thursday, the 23d 
inst., by D. G. M. H, Gregory, of Wayne Dis- 
trict, assisted by D. G. M. A. Yoke, of Luzerne 



112 

District. The Cambria and Olive Leaf Lodges 
of Carbondale, the Howard Lodge of Hones- 
dale, the Wyoming of Wilkes-Barre, the Cove- 
nant of Belvidere, the Quinipac of New Haven, 
were represented. 

The following were the officers elected and 
installed for the first quarter ; E. S. M. Hill, 
N. a, Welcome Hocket, V. G., J. S. Sherrod, 
S., O. J. Dodge, A. S., J. D. Mead, T. Four 
candidates were initiated. 

Every officer named above are now deceased ; 
the last named gentleman, long the urbane 
paymaster on the Pennsylvania Coal Road, 
died with small-pox in New Jersey. This 
honored lodge held their meetings for two 
years in the old Slocum House, Scranton, pre- 
vious to locating in Hyde Park. 

In all of these advertisements, and others 
from " Pittston Ferry," Harrison was ignored, 
because of its obscurity and second rate of 
importance. Even the Carbon CounUj Gazette 
of June, 1846, speaks of a quantity of railroad 
iron from the Harrison Iron Work, ^Providence, 
Luzerne county." Carbondale, standing upon 
its stilts, had a better show than Harrison. 
The following were the business men and firms 
November 20th, 1845 : 

F. P. Grow & Bros., Hichmond &: Robinson, 



113 

A. G. Boley & Co., L. G. Ensign, W. N. 
Arnold & Co., Gillespie, Pierce & Co., Howell 
& Co., D. Mills, Euthven & Co., Cyrus Abbott, 
Agt., Clayton & Holley, J. M. Chittenden & 
Co., John Reider, Anthony Miles, Love & 
Gillespie, S. H. Pierson, Wm. Stanton, Pier- 
son & Co., Benjamin & Dickson, A. P. Wurts, 
A. J. Sterling & Co., B. Harrison, Jehd. 
Bowen, Anthony Grady, Mills, Jones &'Co., 
J. H. Estabrook, E. S. Hart, G. L. Morss & 
Co., P. Moffitt, Jr., Thompson & Stott, Wm. 
Brennan, Patrick Moffitt, James O'Brien, 
Lewis Pughe, Michael Mooney. 

Prominently among them appears the ad- 
vertisement of Lathrop & Burnham, lawyers ; 
A. P. Wurts, Benjamin & Dickson, Richmond 
& R-obinson, Ruthven & Co., merchants ; Jas. 
Pringle, Wm. Stanton and Lewis Pughe, 
merchant tailors. Doctors Sweet and Wheeler, 
two excellent medical men, offered their drugs 
for ready pay^ but for professional services 
" they will expect to give the us^'al credit and 
terms of the country." 

That eccentric and long-remembered man, 
Dr. Rafferty, was then in his prime, and he 
offered his visit and family medicines to all 
with an assurance really refreshing. Dr. N. 
Jackson, now a well-to-do gentleman of Scott 



114 

Valley, says in an advertisemont January 1st, 
1845: "I am happy to state that I have on 
hand and for sale Moffit's Life Fills, Tomato 
BitUrs, and Coon Oil^ Other doctors, with- 
out the lubricating coon oil, made their mark 
in Carbondale, and other men were brought to 
the surface by the Mirro7\ before its fine disso- 
lution, in March, 1847. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

MERCANTILE APPRAISEMENT 

List of retailers and dealers in merchandise 
in the city of Carbondale, with their class, 
April 1st, 1874. 

Co-Operative Association, No. 1, 11 ; Moses 
& Scurry, 13 ; Pascoe & Scurry, 11 ; A. Watt 
& Co., 12; Xerxes W. Williams, 14; E. W. 
Mills & Co., 12; W. Burr, 14 ; Yarrington & 
Bartlett, 12; John Kase, 14; J. W. Marcy, 14; 
S. T. Corby, 14; Evans 8c Alexander, 14; 
John R. Shepherd, 13; J. B. Kirby, 14; S. E. 
Ray nor, 14; J. Alexander & Sons, 14; C* W. 
Fowler, 12; Bolton & Reynolds, 12; Fred. El- 
brecht, 14; John Watt & Sons, 11 ; N. Mohrs, 



115 

14; W. E. Kirby, U; S. Sampson, 14; G. F. 
Swigard, 14; J. B. Van Bergen & Co., 12; C. 
A. Tmex, 1 i ; Misses Brown & Porter, 1 4 ; 
Mrs. Dale, 14; Jadwin & Aitken, 12; Davis 
& Herbert, 14; J. H. Carr, 12; James Barrett, 
13; Michael Mahon, 14; George Shafer, 14; 
Hugh O'Neill, 13; M. A. & J. H. Byrne, 12; 
S. Singer, 14; H. Sahm, 14; James Coyle, 145 
Mrs. Lydia Moffitt, 14; John Nealon, 12; Sam" 
uel Guttentag, 13; Jones & Campmm, 14; P' 
Moffitt, 13; James Coughlin, 14; Wm. Bruaig, 
14; Hobert H. Tralles, 14; Caminskey & 
Strauss, 14; Michael Dugan, 14; John H. 
Wilson, 14; Thomas Voyle, 14; Peter Loftus, 
14; Wm. Breese, 14; W. B. Stoddard, 14; 
James Gilhool, 14; P. Barrett, 14; Charles 
Hagan, 13; Lewis & Powderly, 14; J. F. Kin- 
back, 14; Mrs. B. McTighe, 14; Anthony 
Nealon, 14; Mrs. McCabe, 14; Eobert Max- 
well, 14 ; John Lennidy, 14; Patrick Bridgett, 
14; Anthony Tighe, 14; John Brock, 14; Mi- 
chael McDonald, 14; Michael Loftus, 14; Fan- 
nie Nealon, 14; Michael McNulty, 14; An- 
thony Battle, 14; Thos. G. Burke, 14; Peter 
Dockerty, 14; Thomas Coogan, 14; John Duffy, 
14; Mrs. P. Farrell, 14; Patrick Devine, 14; 
Wm. Lindsay & Co, 14; Patrick Hart, 14; 
Michael Larkin, 14 ; James Burke, 14 ; Thos, 



116 

Scott, 14; Truman Bradley, 14; C. T.Weston 
& Co., 12; Williams & Curtis, 13; Patrick 
Brown, 14; Bailey & Jones, 14; John Mc- 
Comb, 14; E. E. Hendrick, 13. 

Restaurants : — John E. Gorman, 6 ; John V. 
Beck, 7 ; B. Stonebraker, 7 ; Ernest Rachob, 
6 ; Hugh Boland, 6 ; Michael Bommelmeyer, 
6 ; Mrs. Wm. Moffitt, 7 ; O'Connell & Brothers, 
6 ; John Hallowell, 6 ; John Mohrs, 7 ; B. 
Campman, 6 ; E. P. Burke, 6 ; McGovern & 
Brennan, 6 ; John Gillen, 6 ; Tyler Robinson, 
6 ; Patrick Finnegan, 6 ; George Grady, 7 ; 
John Merrick, 7; John H. Barrett, 7. 

Brewer : — John Nealon, 8. 

Court of Appeal will be held at the Commis- 
sioners' Office, in the City Hall, on Saturday, 
May 16th, 1874, at 10 o'clock A. M. 
J. T. Roberts, 

Mercantile Appraiser, 



CHAPTER XXVIJ. 

LETTER RATES OF POSTAGE. 

We don't recollect of any changes in the 
price of postage on letters until H. P. Ensign, 



117 

was postmaster in, 1844. Before that the 
prices ranged — not over 30 miles, 6 cents ; and 
not over 80, 10 cents ; and over 80, and not 
over 150 miles, 18f cents; over 150, and not 
over 400, 25 cents. Very soon after that it 
was put at 5 cents, if prepaid. And then to 
3 cents, on the present basis. To accommo- 
date the postal currency, 3 cent pieces were 
coined, some of which are still in existence. 
But in a year or two envelopes came in use, 
and sold without any mucilage on them, leav- 
ing the people to seal them as they had done 
their letters heretofore, with those little round 
wafers, which had been used from time im- 
memorial, only occasionally with a stick of seal- 
ing wax, so that often in opening a letter it 
would be so torn that some words would often 
be lost. 

It is only a few years since blotting paper 
came into use. Business men had their sand 
boxes, and sometimes in a hurry would dust 
on the sand, and do up the letter with the 
sand in it. 



118 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

TELEGRAPH LINES. 

Ithaca, Tompkins county, is the home and 
residence of Ezra Cornell. Probably many of 
the readers of the Advance recollect that 
nearly a quarter of a century since a telegraph 
line was put up through the city of Carbon- 
dale by said Cornell, extending from Buffalo, 
New York, to New York City, and that when 
his agent came through there he was looked 
upon as somewhat on the luna, and the cold 
shoulder was turned upon him. It being at a 
per.od of life that we had as soon engage in 
putting up telegraph lines as anything else, 
provided that we were well paid for it, accord- 
ingly we negotiated to provide ten miles of 
the poles, also to assist in putting up the line 
from Finch's Gate to Waymart, also to solicit 
subscriptions enough to ensure an office in 
Carbondale, for which one hundred dollars 
was required. But when the subject was pre- 
sented to the people they seemed to say : 

" Think you that we're like mushrooms grown, 
Or moss upon the smooth flint stone?" 



119 

What need we of a telegraph line (suppose 
the thing does operate) when we have a regu- 
lar stage line that leaves here every day for 
New York, and one to Wilkesbarre every other 
day, and we can send letters to either place and 
get an answer the same week. Another en- 
gaged in the stage business objected on account 
of its interfering with the postal arrangements, 
and thereby losir.g his mail money. Another 
one, whose white hair told of his advanced age, 
superintendent of the company's machine 
shop, says, " When are you going to get your 
telegraph a going? I want to go to New 
York — but won't my pants get demoralized 
going over the poles ?" But working along up 
the line the questions were still more amusing. 
One says, " Won't it kill off all the birds ?" 
Another says, " Suppose I have a letter come, 
how shall I stop it ?" A lad far more ac- 
quainted with running coal than transmitting 
messages, says, " Why, jump on the brake and 
slide all four wheels." Anothei says, " I wish 
the line came a little nearer my windy ^ and I'd 
slip a letter on and they'd never know it." 

At Honesdale the people arose en masse 
that the thing should not go through their 
streets. The idea of poles being set up through 
their streets was perfectly ridiculous, and had 



120 

it not been that the late lamented Col. Seeley 
came home from New York, and told them 
that telegraph poles were up all through 
Broadway, the line would have had to gone by 
way of the " Little Church around the Cor- 
ner ;" but through his influence enough of the 
stock was taken to secure an office, and for 
one or two years the people went there to do 
their telegraphing. All that time all the court 
business had to be done at Wilkesbarre, so 
that after a year or two the people awoke 
from their Rip Van Winkle sleep and con- 
structed a line to Wilkesbarre, and opened an 
office so as to work both lines. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE FIRST NEWSPAPERS. 

From 1748 to 1783, forty-nine weekly or 
semi-weekly newspapers were started in the 
colonies. The experiment of a daily paper 
was yet to be tried. While the city of New 
York was occupied by the British troops, the 
several papers of that city so arranged their 
days of publication that one paper was issued 



121 

every day of the week, Sundays excepted 
Of all the newspapers started in America, up 
to the end of this period, sixty-seven in num 
ber, only forty-three were in existence when 
the Independence of the United States was 
acknowledged by Great Britain ; but from this 
time onward there was a steady increase in the 
number of newspapers through the country 
As the post-office facilities were extended from 
city to city, and village to village, the demand 
for newspapers became greater ; and growing 
with the growth of popular intelligence, those 
of the cities especially became 7zeM;5papers in 
fact as well as in name. The value of news 
began to be felt in the community, w^hich was 
no longer content with a dry summary of 
European intelligence, weeks and months old 
before it reached our shores, but demanded 
something akin to modern enterprise in 
making up the record of current events. Of 
course, there was nothing like the newspaper 
machinery of the present day, either in the 
mails or in the printing offices ; no well-or- 
ganized corps of editors, reporters and corre- 
spondents; none of that precise division of 
labor by which a great newspaper of to-day is 
able to print more matter in a single number 
than was given in a whole volume of a news- 



122 

paper a hundred years ago. But the journals 
of the day satisfied their patrons. There was 
even some opposition to newspaper improve- 
ments. When it was proposed, in 1796, to 
issue the Salem Gazette semi- weekly, Mr. John 
Pickering was greatly exercised in his mind 
by this symptom of modern degeneracy. "The 
paper never had been published but once a 
week," he said, " and that was often enough ; 
it was nonsense to disturb people's minds by 
sending newspapers among them twice a week, 
to take their attention from the duties they 
had to perform." It is said that the earliest 
news express in this country was run for the 
benefit of this paper. The distance from Bos- 
ton to Salem was only fifteen miles; but it 
was then regarded as a marvel of enterprise. 

To Philadelphia belongs the historical honor 
of being the first city in the United States to 
possess a daily newspaper. It was called the 
American Daily Advertiser^ and was started in 
1784, by Benjamin Franklin Bache. One 
year afterward the New Yorlc Daily Advertiser 
was established in that city. To a New York 
journalist, John Lang, of the New York 
Gazette, established in 1 788, belongs the credit 
of originating an important branch of modern 
newspaper intelligence. He was very fond of 



123 

boating, and would frequently go down the 
bay, accompanied by an old colored servant. 
On returning home on one occasion, he passed 
a ship just arrived. He hailed her, obtained 
her name, and where she was from, and these 
facts appeared in the next morning's Gazette, 
Those interested in her were surprised to see 
her arrival thus announced before they knew 
that she had made her appearance. Tradition 
gives this as the origin of the news-boat ser- 
vice, which has since become so necessary. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CARRYING THE MAILS FIFTY YEARS AGO. 

JoHisr Knapp, one of the early settlers of 
Lackawanna township, now seventy-six years 
of age, recently narrated to us some interest- 
ing incidents connected with his boyhood 
days, and the early settlements of Luzerne 
county. In 1819, when twenty-one years of 
age, he took the contract for carrying the 
United States mail from Wilkes-Barre to Mil- 
ford, Pike county, once a week, on horse-back. 
The post offices supplied by this route were 



124 

Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Blakely, Greenfield, 
Dundaff, Mount Pleasant, Bethany, Lacka- 
waxen, Milford, Paupack and Salem. He lived 
with his brother on the bank of the Lacka- 
wanna river (near the present L. and B. E,. E,. 
crossing); from there he went to Wilkes-Barre 
and back with the mail on Saturday. On Sun- 
day morning he would start northward and 
stay over night two miles beyond Dundaff, 
Monday night at Lackavvaxen, Tuesday night 
at Milford, Wednesday night near Paupack, 
reaching home on Thursday night. He was 
on the road every day of the week except 
Friday, this route comprising a distance of 
about one hundred miles circular. Mr. Knapp 
travelled for four consecutive years, never 
missing but one trip during the whole time, 
and even then he made about half of the dis- 
tance, but was finally compelled to go back, 
by a fearful snow storm, which rendered it 
utterly impossible for him to proceed. Two 
horses were required to accomplish the work, 
one being used each alternate week. For this 
service he received the pitiful sum of one dol- 
lar per day. But by very close economy he 
managed to save money enough to pay for his 
farm, for which he recently realized about 
twenty thousand dollars. To accomplish this 



125 

herculean task, through the primitive forest, 
inhabited by howling wild beasts, with but a 
very poor apology for a road, but here and 
there a human habitation, required a larger 
amount of perseverance and untiring energy 
than is often exhibited by young men of the 
present day. Between Paupack and Salem 
he was compelled to pass through the great 
swamp, being oftentimes obliged to bend low 
on his horse's neck to avoid the branches of 
the trees that overhung this lonely bridle-path. 
From Salem his route lay over Cobb mountain 
to Providence. The Providence post office 
was on the bank of the river, and was kept 
by Benjamin Slocum. It was located between 
the old grist mill and the old still-house. 
Jacob Sist was postmaster at Wilkes-Barre. 
The change that has taken place throughout 
the valley, and along the entire route, trav- 
elled by Mr. Knapp fifty-one years ago, is 
marvellous indeed 



126 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE BIRTH AND HISTORY OF JOHN R(EBLING — HIS 
INVENTION AND MANUFACTURE OF WIRE ROPE 
— HIS SUCCESS IN BUILDING SUSPENSION BRIDGES 

AND HIS AQUEDUCTS FOR THE DELAWARE AND 

HUDSON COMPANY. 

We will now give our readers something of 
the history of the projector of the East River 
Bridge, John A. Roebling; also a more ex- 
tended account of the bridge, now in process 
of building between New York city and 
Brooklyn. 

John A. Roebling was born on the 12th of 
June, 1806, in the city of Mulhousen, in 
Prussia. At the age of twenty-five he came 
to this country, and settled in the neighbor- 
hood of Pittsburg, Pa., where for several years 
he devoted himself to agricultural pursuits. 
The State of Pennsylvania at thsCt time pro- 
jected several great railway enterprises, and in 
the service of the State he spent three years in 
surveying and locating the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road across the Allegheny Mountains, from 
Harrisburg to Pittsburg. Having completed 



127 

these surveys, Mr. E-oebling commenced the 
manufacture of wire rope, producing the first 
of the kind that was ever manufactured in this 
country. The introduction of these ropes on 
the inclined planes of the old Portage Rail- 
road, over which the boats of the Pennsylvania 
Canal were transported, was attended with 
much difficulty, and met with that degree of 
opposition which has always arisen, and in all 
probability always will arise, to retard the pro- 
gress of a new invention or a novel idea. From 
his experience in the manufacture of wire rope, 
Mr. Roebling formed his opinion relative to its 
adaptablity for bridging, and in 1844 com- 
menced a work, the completion of which was 
destined to prove that his opinion was a tena- 
ble one, in spite of the scoffs and jeers of an 
incredulous public, and the attacks of other 
civil engineers, who deemed the project the 
outgrowth of a diseased mind. This first work 
was a suspension aqueduct over the Allegheny 
river at Pittsburg, to replace the old aque- 
duct, which had become useless from age. 
It was completed in May, 1845, and com- 
prised seven spans, each of 160 feet; the 
cables were seven inches in diameter. The 
success of the work was such that during 
the succeeding year he was engaged to con- 



128 

struct the Monongahela Suspension Bridge, 
connecting Pittsburg with Sligo, as it was 
then called, now West Pittsburg — a great 
manufacturing suburb. The spans of this 
bridge were eight in number, each 108 feet 
in length, and supported by two 4J inch 
cables. 

In 1848 Mr. Rcebling commenced the con- 
struction of a series of suspension aqueducts 
on the line of the Delaware and Hudson 
canal, connecting the anthracite coal regions 
of Pennsylvania with the tidewater of the 
Hudson river. We well remember when his 
men passed through Carbondale with their 
apparatus for building these works. The 
Lackawaxen aqueduct has two spans 115 
feet each, and two 7 inch cables ; the Dela- 
ware aqueduct, four spans 134 feet each, and 
two 8 inch cables ; The High Falls aqueduct, 
one span 145 feet, and two 8| inch cables ; and 
the Neversink aqueduct, one span 170 feet, 
and tAvo 9| inch cables. They were completed 
within two years, and are all permanent works, 
needing only a renewal of the wooden parts as 
they decay from the action of the water. Soon 
after the completion of this work, he removed 
his works and residence to Trenton, N. J. 

In 1^51 he commenced building the Sus- 



129 

pension Bridge across the Niagara, to connect 
the Central Railroad of New York, and the 
Great Western Railway of Canada, and in 
four years succeeded in constructing the first 
suspension bridge capable of bearing the im- 
mense weight of railroad locomotives and 
trains, besides a carriage road bridge sus- 
pended under it, on which vehicles and all 
descriptions of foot passengers travel, while 
locomotives and trains are passing over their 
heads. The span of this double bridge is 
825 feet clear, and its supports are four 10 
inch cables. While building the Niagara 
Bridge, Mr. Roebling was also engaged on 
another of still greater magnitude, which was 
to have crossed the Kentucky river, on the 
line of the Cincinnati and Chattanooga Rail- 
road, with a span of 1,224 feet, but before the 
structure had been completed the company 
suspended payment, and the work was discon- 
tinued. In the fall of 1856 he commenced 
the great Cincinnati Bridge, with a span of 
1,030 feet, and after having to suspend op- 
erations for awhile, brought it to a successful 
completion in 1867. From 1858 to 1860 he 
was engaged on another suspension bridge at 
Pittsburg. But his last and greatest work was 

that on which he was engaged at the time of 

6* 



130 

his death — the East Kiver Bridge. As he had 
prepared all his plans, and made most of the 
arrangements for the construction of the 
bridge, his death was not so great a misfor- 
tune to the cities of New York and Brooklyn, 
as it would have been had it occurred at an 
earlier date. His death was the indirect result 
of an accident which occurred at the Fulton 
Ferry slip, on the *28th of June, 1869. His 
foot was terribly crushed between the cross- 
beams of the dock and a float which was 
entering the slip. It was found necessary to 
amputate the toes, from which the lockjaw 
set in with its usual symptoms, accompanied 
with spasms, which resulted in his death. I 
understand his son is superintending the work. 
When in Western Michigan last summer, we 
were shown the house and lands which Mr. 
Rcebling had purchased, near the Grand river, 
intended for his future home. 

Some suppose that the bridge when fin- 
ished will do away with the Brooklyn Ferry, 
but not in the least. The bridge being over 
one hundred feet above the water, it will be 
the best part of half a mile from the shore to 
where the bridge strikes the ground on the 
New York side, but on the Brooklyn side, not 
near so far, as the ground rises more abrupt 



131 



than on the New York side. The bridge, 
when finished, will be nearly one mile long, 
and will take passengers from up near Broad- 
way. As I understand it, the cars are to run 
by steam and an endless rope. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



AMERICAN" RAILROADS. 



The first railroad ever made in this country 
was only commenced fifty-three years since. 
It was a short road in Massachusetts, three 
miles long, to convey the stone for the Bunker 
Hill Monument, from the Quincy quarry, 
called the Quincy road. But there was no lo- 
comotives then. The first railroad in the State 
of New York was the Mohawk and Hud- 
son, sixteen miles in length, now called the 
Schenectady Railroad. It was commenced in 
1830, and finished in 183-^, only eighteen 
years ago — 1818. On the 1st of January, 
1851, there were in operation in the State of 
New York 1400 miles of railroad, costing 
$56,200,000. There were nearly the same 
number of miles in Massachusetts; while in the 



132 

entire New England States the miles amounted 
to 2,644, costing $86,944,450. The total in 
operation in the United States in January was 
8,797 miles, costing $287,455,078. Since then 
a sufficient number of miles have been com- 
pleted to increase the grand total to 10,000 
miles, and the amount invested, $330,000,000. 
In June, 1836, the writer of this took eight 
days to go from Utica to Schenectady, de- 
layed three days by a break in the canal. He 
went the same distance last year in eight 
hours. What a change since 1851 ! 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Carbondale, April 29, 1866. 

Editor of the Union News, 

Dear Sir : — While spending a few days in 
your vicinity the past month, I could but notice 
the great improvement that had^ been made 
within the last thirty years. To see so many 
heavily laden cars constantly passing, not only 
with passengers but with animal and vegetable 
life, and all the necessary articles that make 
up the sum of human happiness. Thirty years 



183 

since, travelling was all done with stages, car- 
riages with horse power, and on foot. Then, 
merchants sent their teams to Ithaca and to 
Utica for their goods, and I recollect when 
Wm. H. Keeler, Esq., sent his teams to Hones- 
dale for goods, that being the terminus of the 
Delaware and Hudson canal, reaching from 
Rondout, on the Hudson river, to the latter 
place. This canal was constructed soon after 
the Erie canal, and the railroad from Hones- 
dale to Carbondale was one of the first railroads 
that was constructed this side of the Atlantic, 
and the first locomotive that was ever tried to 
be put in use, was put in use on that road, as 
they had four miles that they called the four 
mile level ; the remainder was a gravity road, 
and although the engine was very light, being 
mostly constructed of wood, most resembling 
heavy cart wheels, with heavy tire and flange, 
and a good part of the road being of trestle 
work, was entirely too weak to support the 
engine, and the cars were propelled by horse 
power, and the engine was thrown aside and 
knocked to pieces, and the boiler is now used 
here in a foundry and machine shop, and the 
remainder for old iron. In fact, the whole 
thing, railroad coal business, was then but an 
experiment, and the Delaware and Hudson 



134 

Company were then in so limited circumstances, 
that they borrowed of the State of New York 
so large an amount of their securities or bonds, 
that when put in market and sold for ready 
cash, that the depreciation on them amounted 
to forty thousand dollars, and as before stated, 
the whole thing was, at that day, only an ex- 
periment, and the use of anthracite coal hardly 
known, and over one hundred miles of canal, 
with one hundred and eight locks, and sixteen 
miles of railroad, over the Moosic Mountain, 
with eight inclined planes and stationary en- 
gines, and that through then an almost un- 
broken wilderness. 

Yet with a determination and perseverance 
that could hardly think of impossibilities, the 
work was pushed forward until the great debt 
of New York was paid up, and the Delaware 
and Hudson Company stand second to no other 
in wealth and importance. The first time that 
we visited Carbondale, they were then sending 
six hundred tons per day over their railroad 
and canal, to the Hudson river, which was the 
full amount of the demand in market. The 
demand has been continually increasing, and 
the improvements and facilities keeping time 
with the demand, until four, five and six thou- 
sand tons have been sent daily over the road. 



135 

That the readers may more fully understand 
the operation, we will state that the coal has 
to be drawn up eight inclined plains to the top 
of the mountain, and then let down on the 
other side by the aid of fan wheels and friction 
levers, by which the machinery is regulated ; 
and the loaded trains, consisting of six to eight 
cars, brings up the back freight coming this 
way. 

To give the readers something of the amount 
of the coal business in Carbondale that is for- 
warded to Honesdale, I will give an extract 
from a Honesdale paper : 

One of the Wonders of the World. — The 
Delaware and Hudson Canal Company have 
now piled at this place in the neighborhood of 
850,000 tons of coal. This simple announce- 
ment may not excite the wonder of the general 
reader, but when we add that the pile referred 
to is, so far as there is any record, the largest 
body of coal ever collected in one heap on the 
face of the earth, his attention may be secured 
to a few curious calculations. 

The cars in which the coal is brought from 
the mines to this place, when coupled together, 
average about fifteen feet in length, and carry 
about three and three-quarter tons. To re- 
move the stock at this point at one load it 



136 

would therefore require a train of 93,333 cars, 
reaching 265 miles in length ; and if unloaded 
at the rate of one car in every five minutes for 
ten hours each day, the train would be con- 
siderably upwards of two years in discharging 
its freight, allowing no rest for Sundays. 

The vastness of the accumulations on our 
docks awaiting the opening of the season's navi- 
gation, will more clearly strike the ordinary 
consumer, if we base our calculations on the 
quantities in which it is generally delivered. 
A procession of 700,000 carts would be needed, 
reaching in one continuous line considerably 
more than 2000 miles — and requiring, provided 
they could be simultaneously loaded, and all 
start at the same time, travelling at the rate of 
four miles per hour, ten hours a day, upwards 
of fifty-three days to pass a given point. 

Again, let us suppose the company generous 
enough to make some man a present of the 
pile on condition that he remove it with a 
wheelbarrow, carrying one cwt. at each load, 
and making a trip every fifteen minutes. A 
simple calculation shows that working the ordi- 
nary hours, he would be over 610 years in se- 
curing his treasure. 

When we take into consideration the fact 
that this immense stock is not much more than 



137 

one-fourth of the amount which will find its 
way to Rondout through this place during the 
year, and that the Delaware and Hudson Hail- 
road and Canal is only one among a large 
number of avenues by which the products of our 
mines reach a market, we shall begin to ap- 
preciate the untold wealth of our State and the 
maofnitude of the interests involved in its devel- 
opment. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

KAILROADING IN EARLY DATS. 

A WRITER in the Hartford Courant gives 
reminiscences of railroading in Connecticut forty 
years ago. AVhen the Hartford & New Haven 
road was first opened it had very meagre facili- 
ties, the road bed was poor, had only strap 
rails, which were all the while curling up and 
running through the car floors, and the cars 
were small and the locomotives weak. In fact, 
it didn't take much to block a train in those 
days. Sometimes an inch of snow on the rails 
would do it. Henry C. White, one of the first 
conductors on the road, tells how he and the 
baggage master used to sit in front of the loco- 



138 

motive, one on each side, and brush off the 
snow from the rails with a broom as the train 
slowly crawled along. Each had a pail of sand 
and sprinkled some on the rails when necessary. 
The driving wheels (engines had only one pair 
then) used to slip round and round and torment 
them almost to death. On one occasion a train 
got '" stuck" on the Yalesville grade by one inch 
of snow, and the wood and water gave out be- 
fore the locomotive could overcome it. At last 
they got out the neighbors, yoked four pairs of 
oxen to the train, and drew it, passengers, bag- 
gage and all, into Meriden with flying colors. 
In the early days of the road the stage dri- 
vers used to regard the cars with great contempt. 
Indeed, thirty years ago the passenger trains 
were three or four hours on the road to New 
Haven, and the stage coaches went in about 
the same time. Superintendent Davidson re- 
members riding with his father in a carriage 
drawn by two horses, in 1840, which had a 
race with a passenger train near Wallingford, 
where the turnpike and railroad are parallel 
for two or three miles, and during all that time 
the carriage kept even with the train. There 
were only two trains each way daily then, both 
carrying passengers and freight. The old cars 
were divided into three compartments, opened 



139 

on the sides, and had twenty-four seats. The 
locomotives had only twelve-inch cylinders, and 
no cabs to protect the engineer and fireman 
from the weather. The oldest locomotives 
were the Hartford, Quinnipiac, Charter Oak, 
and New Haven. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

A SKETCH OF D. TARRINGTON AND HIS ANCESTORS. 

In sketching the history of the people of 
Carbondale, we have endeavored to be very 
brief, as this is a fast age, and people can spare 
but little time on one subject. Perhaps there 
are but few families whose history is fraught 
with more thrilling interest than that of our 
respected townsman, Dilton Yarrington, of 
which we can only give a mere outline. 

Abel Yarrington, grandfather of Dilton 
Yarrington, was a native of Connecticut, and 
moved to Wyoming in 1772. And his father 
Peter was only two years old — that the grand- 
father built the first public house ; he also built 
a ferry boat, and kept the first tavern ever 
kept in Wilkesbarre, as well as the first ferry, 



140 

until the Wyoming massacre took place, six 
years after. In this time two more children 
were added to their household. The grand- 
father took part in most of the difficulties of 
the Pennamite War with the Yankees, and a 
great friend of Captain John Franklin. Dilton 
Yarrington was acquainted with the British 
officers, and was ordered to assist in putting 
Franklin on a horse, while his arms were 
pinioned behind him and his legs and feet tied 
under the horse's belly, and sent to Philadelphia 
prison. Minor in his history of Wyoming, has 
hit on but a very few of the incidents of the 
family in his early history of Wyoming, and 
other historians have hardly gone back to those 
scenes. The father of Dilton went from 
Wilkesbarre, in 1794, to suppress the rebellion, 
as a fifer ; but it was a bloodless war. On 
the morning of the massacre, July 3d, 1778, 
a council was held by the prominent men of the 
valley, who voted to meet the Indians and 
Tories and give battle, and they agreed to* 
Abel Yarrington was ferryman ; he should stay 
at the ferry so that in case of disaster, that he 
could take the women and children across to 
the east side of the river ; as there was no 
other way of escape from the valley, only over 
the mountain to Easton. They were defeated, 



141 

and large numbers of old men, women and 
children, came running to the ferry to be taken 
over. And he used his utmost exertions to 
get over all he could, until after the battle. 
And the Indians came in sight in their canoes, 
when he threw a few articles into his flat, took 
in his family, and pushed down the river as 
fast as possible. The Indians got so near 
them that they fired several shots at them, the 
bullets skipping on the water beside them. 
There were numbers left on the shore, beg- 
ging to be taken in, but had they attempted 
to have done more their lives would have been 
sacrificed. They had not gone far when they 
saw the smoke of their homes all in flames. 
They went as far as Northumberland, where 
after some months they returned to find 
naught but ruin and desolation, They then 
built a cheap habitation, in which they resided 
until an ice freshet in the river swept away 
their house, and all their effects, the family 
barely escaping with their lives. The grand- 
father remained there a poor man, until he 
died in 1824. In 1825 Peter Yarrington 
brother of Esq., then in his fifteenth year, went 
on a boat up the river to Painted Post, with a 
load of goods belonging to a Mr. Holenback. 
Mr. Holenback had a store there, and hired 



142 

Peter, his brother, and another young man, to 
go trading with the Indians for furs, sold out 
once and returned with the furs ; and went out 
again when they were taken by the Indians, 
and their horses and goods appropriated to 
their own use. They were kept as prisoners 
for four years, before they could make their 
escape — most of the time betw^een Seneca and 
Cayuga lakes. Their friends had given them 
up as dead. Esquire Yarrington was a scholar 
in the first Sunday school taught in Luzerne 
county, in 1818. And Judge Collins, of 
Wilkesbarre was his teacher, who is now 
over eighty, and practising law in Wilkesbarre. 
The next great drawback to the family was the 
cold summer of 1816, when not a bushel of 
ripe corn was raised in the valley ; but it was 
the greatest year for shad ever known. In 
which Esquire Yarrington helped to take over 
two thousand shad in one day. Dilton Yarring- 
ton, Esq., has furnished us with a very inter- 
esting account of Dundaff. In 1825, he went 
from Wilkesbarre to Montrose, to see Tredwell 
hung ; and soon hired out to Gould Phinney. 
When he walked thirty-seven miles from below 
Wilkesbarre to Dundaff, and commenced work 
for him March 1st, 1825. The hotel there 
was then kept by Archipus Parish, son of Mr. 



143 

Parish, of Wilkesbarre. The hotel owned by 
Gould Phinney, who owned a store, a grist- 
mill, saw-mill, blacksmith shop, farm and a 
stock- holder in a stage line, tin shop, wag- 
gon shop, &c., Joshua Fletcher, shoemaker ; 
James Warner, hatter; Anthony Smith, hatter; 
James Coil, farmer ; John Coil, hunter ; George 
Coil, farmer ; D. Brownell, farmer ; Peter 
Graham, wholesale merchant and farmer ; 
and Peter Camel, superintendent ; C. B. Mer- 
rick, physician, died in April, 1825 ; Joseph 
Faulkner, physician, died in 1843 ; Benjamin 
Ayres, farmer ; W. S. Wilbur, carpenter ; Asa 
Dimock, J. P. ; C. H. Wells, Geo. W. Healy, 
merchants ; Ebenezer Brown, miller ; B. P. 
Baily, tanner ; Nathan Callender, farmer ; Wm. 
Wells, carpenter ; Robt. Arnot, farmer; John 
Few, carpenter ; A. C. Phelps, physician ; Ezra 
Stewart, shoemaker; James Rolls, father of 
twenty-two children, laborer ; Lyman C. 
Hymes, carpenter ; Stephen Sampson, carpen- 
ter ; Samuel Davis, blacksmith ; David Pease, 
blacksmith ; A. C. Schafer and Hugh Fell, 
wagon-makers ; Oliver Daniel, cooper. Sher- 
man D. Phelps, came to Dundaff in 1830; 
in 1858 married Elizabeth Sweet, oldest 
daughter of Doctor T. Sweet, he then living in 



144 

Binghamton, and she died in 1861. Mr. 
Phelps is now a successful banker and mayor 
of Binghamton. 

THE HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERDOM IN NORTHERN 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

In 1828, the first number of the Dundaif 
Repuhlican was issued by Sloan Hamilton. 
In 1831, he sold it out to Earl Wheeler ; in 
1832, he sold it to Amzi Wilson, who changed 
the name to that of the Northern PennsyU 
vanian. The same year seeing the growing 
prosperity of Carbondale, removed it to that 
place, and continued the paper until 1837, 
when he sold it out to Wm. Bolton, who left 
for the Pacific cost in the time of the gold 
fever, and died on his way back. 

Agnes Cameron settled in Dundafi* in 1828, 
and carried on the cabinet making business for 
some time, but removed to Carbondale, where 
he carried on a successful trade as cabinet 
maker, undertaker, &c. ; also raised a large 
and respectable family , but has for some years 
lived on his farm in Canaan, Wayne county. 
Perhaps there are but few families whose 
history would be more interesting than that of 
Dilton Yarrington, Esq., his ancestry having 



146 

come into the valley when it was an unbroken 
wilderness ; having gone through with all the 
hardships and privations of frontier life, the 
Squire has manfully borne life's burdens, 
always led an active, industrious life, for thirty 
years at the anvil; always ready to furnish 
means in upholding the advancement of 
every good cause. For a score of years or 
more, he has been engaged in the lumbering 
business, so that there are but few buildings 
in the citv but what he has furnished means 
to build or repair. He is now in his seventy- 
second year, yet active in carrying on his 
business with his youngest son John T., as 
partner, who with Wm. L., merchant, in 
Carbondale, are all the children they have left 
out of a family of eight children But we 
close this chapter with the recital of the sad 
event of his oldest son, Peter A., who went to 
California, at the age of twenty years, in 1850. 
He remained there four years ; established a 
paper, printed one-half in English, and half in 
Spanish, he understanding the Spanish lan- 
guage. After which he enlisted in General 
Walker's army, to go to Nicaragua, and there 
continued his paper. But many know the 

history of that war and its tragic end. Suffice 

7 



146 

it to say that he lost his life at the seige of 
Grenada, on the 12th of December, 1856. 
OwEGO, Septemher I, 1874. 

Note : — Since writing the above J. T. 
Yarrington has died, leaving a young wife at 
his father's house. Died in September, 1874. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE LAST CHAPTER OF THE CHRONICLES OF CRYSTAL 
LAKE CLAM BAKE. 

Now, it came to pass in the year 1 874, in the 
ninth month of the year, in the reign of Alfred, 
that a goodly spirit came over the people of 
Carbondale. 

And they said one to another, Have we not 
much to be thankful for ? Have we not Alfred 
for our chief ruler, a man of goodly ^stature, and, 
moreover, a man of pleasant speech and an up- 
right mind, so that he hath gained the hearts 
of the people 1 

And they said one to another. Let us go up 
into the hill country, even unto the land of the 
Simpsons, where the crystal waters of the lake 



147 

are so beautifully blended with the rich fields 
and forests round about. 

And as they said so did they. 

Now there was Joseph, a son of Henry, 
whose surname was Van Bergen, a goodly 
man, who had been chosen their leader. 

And in the last month of the summer solstice, 
with one heart and one mind, came thev 
together. 

And there assembled in great numbers of the 
sons and daughters of the Valley of Wyom- 
ing. Also the pilgrim afar off and the sojour- 
ner at home. 

They came also even from the prairie lands 
of Illinois in the far West. Also, from the 
goodly lands around about the goodly city of 
Carbondale. 

And strangers who honored them, and whom 
they honored, also came among them, not in- 
termeddling with their joys, but greatly 
augmenting their happiness. 

And there was gathered together a great 
number of people. 

Old men and women, fair young maidens, 
and a great company were there. 

They came not like the Queen of Sheba, 
bearing spices and gold in abundance, and pre- 
cious stones, but instead of these, sound minds, 



148 

well instructed hearts of loyalty to the land of 
their fathers, imperishable friendship — all pearls 
of great price. 

And they said to their brethren, Come now, 
let us enter in and freely take of our abun- 
dance. 

For have they not spread a table for us ? 
And the faces of their brethren shone as 
they entered in. 

And they said, It was a true report we heard 
of thee ; thy land doth excel, and thou hast 
greatly increased in riches, and the beauty of 
this summer resort. 

And there were chariots and horsemen not a 
few. 

And they said, Do we not here behold such 
as Solomon in all his wisdom never conceived 
of; nor by the cunning artificers of the East ; 
nor by the many hard handed laborers of 
Egypt ; nor by the art of ancient Greece. 

And now do we hear the puffing of the pon- 
derous engine over the many waters of the 
Crystal Lake. 

And when they had assembled in large 
numbers near the shore, the voice of Thomas, 
whose surname is Voyle, was heard afar off. 

And they gathered together, and they ate 



149 

and they drank, and made merry in their 
hearts. 

And as they looked over the great congrega- 
tion, there were large numbers from the pleasant 
valley of the coal country and the great city of 
Scranton. Monies, Nash, Lynde, Silkman, 
Campbell, Howells, Roberts, Everhart, and 
even Uncle John, the sage of Carbondale. 

Also there came William and John from 
the house of Law, from the far off city of 
Pittston. 

Also Smith and Bortree from the city set on 
the hill. 

Simpson, Foote, Jones, Kearney and Jermyn 
from the city of Archbald. 

And letters were received from Pughe and 
Dana, sorrowing because they could not be 
there to speak before the people. 

And they snug songs, they danced, they run 
races, made maidens presents, because a joyful 
spirit had come over them. 

And they resolved in their hearts to come 
up there even once every year, so that the bands 
of friendship may be strengthened, and also 
make merry in their hearts together — even at 
the ninth month every year. 

And as the time of separation drew near, they 



150 

said, We will have Thomas to preside over 
our deliberations another year. 

And as they took the parting hand they 
said, Let us see to it that we do all life's work 
well, henceforth and forever more. 



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